CR2032 button cell batteries

The first atomic-level image of CR2032 button cell batteries fire was observed, and cryo-electron microscopy has become a "killer weapon" for battery research

With the widespread use of electric vehicles in recent years, the development of new tools and the design of new materials are key factors in future breakthroughs in battery energy storage technology. The development of new tools will help reveal the fundamental processes that lead to battery failure and provide strong guidance for better material design.

The synergy between these two themes will not only bring practical applications in the short term, but also help stabilize long-term solutions for high-energy battery materials.

Li Yuzhang, assistant professor at the School of Engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and his team have achieved a number of blockbuster results in consecutive years. For example, the atomic-level image of the cause of CR2032 button cell batteries fire was captured for the first time, providing a guarantee for the development of safer batteries. A commercially licensed method for using graphene cage encapsulation technology to improve battery stability has also been developed, and a patent has been applied for. In addition to batteries, there have been promising research results in metal organic frameworks and atomic insights into imaging of gas molecules.

Silicon batteries cannot be charged stably? Graphene cage encapsulation technology helps achieve

High-energy CR2032 button cell batteries chemistries such as silicon, metallic lithium, and sulfur can promote the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy (solar, wind). Silicon has more than 10 times the capacity of traditional battery materials, but because silicon materials break and lose electrical contact during charging and discharging, the broken particles lose activity and silicon batteries can no longer be charged.

In 2013, Li Yuzhang began studying materials science and engineering at Stanford University, and his first research project was graphene and silicon materials. "Because the research project must use electron microscopes to observe the atomic layers of materials such as graphene, I have accumulated a lot of operating experience. Not everyone can use electron microscopes well, so before that I had invested a year or two to learn to operate the instrument proficiently."

The project began with Li Yuzhang's extensive research on how silicon batteries fail. Silicon microparticles are a low-cost alternative, but unlike silicon nanoparticles, silicon microparticles suffer inevitable particle breakage during electrochemical cycles, so it is difficult to achieve stable cycles in actual batteries.

Therefore, Li Yuzhang and his team investigated a method to encapsulate silicon microparticles (about 1-3μm) using synthetic multilayer graphene "cages". The graphene cage acts as a mechanically strong and soft buffer film during the cyclic charging process, maintaining electrical connectivity at the particle and electrode level even if the microparticles expand and rupture in the cage. In addition, the chemically inert graphene cage forms a stable solid electrolyte interface, which minimizes irreversible lithium ion consumption and rapidly improves the coulombic efficiency in the early cycles.

Li Yuzhang told DeepTech, "We want to see if we can make silicon work from cheap materials that are not nanoscale, which is very difficult because large silicon particles will rupture during battery charging and discharging."

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