1

Aluminium battery from Stanford offers

Fast Charge and Low Cost (traduccin al final)
Stanford University scientists have invented the first high-performance aluminium battery
that's fast-charging, long-lasting and inexpensive. Researchers say the new technology
offers a safe alternative to many commercial batteries in wide use today.
"We have developed a rechargeable aluminium battery that may replace existing storage
devices, such as alkaline batteries, which are bad for the environment, and lithium-ion
batteries, which occasionally burst into flames," said Hongjie Dai, a professor of chemistry
at Stanford. "Our new battery won't catch fire, even if you drill through it."
Dai and his colleagues describe their novel aluminium-ion battery in "An ultrafast
rechargeable aluminium-ion battery," which will be published in the April 6 advance online
edition of the journal Nature.

Aluminium has long been an attractive material for batteries, mainly because of its low
cost, low flammability and high-charge storage capacity. For decades, researchers have
tried unsuccessfully to develop a commercially viable aluminium-ion battery. A key
challenge has been finding materials capable of producing sufficient voltage after repeated
cycles of charging and discharging.

2
Graphite cathode
An aluminium-ion battery consists of two electrodes: a negatively charged anode made of
aluminium and a positively charged cathode.
"People have tried different kinds of materials for the cathode," Dai said. "We accidentally
discovered that a simple solution is to use graphite, which is basically carbon. In our study,
we identified a few types of graphite material that give us very good performance."
For the experimental battery, the Stanford team placed the aluminium anode and graphite
cathode, along with an ionic liquid electrolyte, inside a flexible polymer- coated pouch.
"The electrolyte is basically a salt that's liquid at room temperature, so it's very safe," said
Stanford graduate student Ming Gong, co-lead author of the Nature study.

Aluminium batteries are safer than conventional lithium-ion batteries used in millions of
laptops and cell phones today, Dai added.
"Lithium-ion batteries can be a fire hazard," he said.
As an example, he pointed to recent decisions by United and Delta airlines to ban bulk
lithium-battery shipments on passenger planes.
"In our study, we have videos showing that you can drill through the aluminium battery
pouch, and it will continue working for a while longer without catching fire," Dai said. "But
lithium batteries can go off in an unpredictable manner in the air, the car or in your
pocket. Besides safety, we have achieved major breakthroughs in aluminium battery
performance."
One example is ultra-fast charging. Smartphone owners know that it can take hours to
charge a lithium-ion battery. But the Stanford team reported "unprecedented charging
times" of down to one minute with the aluminum prototype.

3
Durability is another important factor. Aluminium batteries developed at other laboratories
usually died after just 100 charge-discharge cycles. But the Stanford battery was able to
withstand more than 7,500 cycles without any loss of capacity. "This was the first time an
ultra-fast aluminium-ion battery was constructed with stability over thousands of cycles,"
the authors wrote.
By comparison, a typical lithium-ion battery lasts about 1,000 cycles.
"Another feature of the aluminium battery is flexibility," Gong said. "You can bend it and
fold it, so it has the potential for use in flexible electronic devices. Aluminium is also a
cheaper metal than lithium."
Applications
In addition to small electronic devices, aluminium batteries could be used to store
renewable energy on the electrical grid, Dai said.
"The grid needs a battery with a long cycle life that can rapidly store and release energy,"
he explained. "Our latest unpublished data suggest that an aluminium battery can be
recharged tens of thousands of times. It's hard to imagine building a huge lithium-ion
battery for grid storage."
Aluminium-ion technology also offers an environmentally friendly alternative to disposable
alkaline batteries, Dai said.
"Millions of consumers use 1.5-volt AA and AAA batteries," he said. "Our rechargeable
aluminium battery generates about two volts of electricity. That's higher than anyone has
achieved with aluminium."
But more improvements will be needed to match the voltage of lithium-ion batteries, Dai
added.
"Our battery produces about half the voltage of a typical lithium battery," he said. "But
improving the cathode material could eventually increase the voltage and energy density.
Otherwise, our battery has everything else you'd dream that a battery should have:
inexpensive electrodes, good safety, high-speed charging, flexibility and long cycle life. I
see this as a new battery in its early days. It's quite exciting."

Video en:

https://youtu.be/ZKIcYk7E9lU

Los Cientficos de la Universidad de Stanford han inventado la primera batera de aluminio

de alto rendimiento con carga rpida, de larga duracin y de bajo costo. Los investigadores
dicen que la nueva tecnologa ofrece una alternativa segura a muchas bateras comerciales
de amplio uso en la actualidad.
3

"Hemos desarrollado una batera recargable de aluminio que pueden sustituir a los
dispositivos de almacenamiento existentes, tales como las bateras alcalinas, que son malos
para el medio ambiente, y las bateras de iones de litio, que en ocasiones se incendi", dijo
Hongjie Dai, profesor de qumica en Stanford . "Nuestra nueva batera no se incendie,
incluso si se la perfora."
Aluminio ha sido durante mucho tiempo un material atractivo para las bateras,
principalmente debido a su capacidad de almacenamiento de bajo costo, baja inflamabilidad
y alta carga. Durante dcadas, los investigadores han intentado, sin xito, para desarrollar
una batera comercialmente viable de aluminio-litio. Un desafo clave ha sido encontrar
materiales capaces de producir suficiente voltaje despus de repetidos ciclos de carga y
descarga.
Ctodo de grafito
Una batera de iones de aluminio se compone de dos electrodos: un nodo cargado
negativamente de aluminio y un ctodo cargado positivamente.
"Se ha experimentado diferentes tipos de materiales para el ctodo", dijo Dai.
"Accidentalmente Descubrimos que una solucin sencilla es utilizar el grafito, que es
bsicamente de carbono. En nuestro estudio, hemos identificado algunos tipos de material
de grafito que nos dan un rendimiento muy bueno."
Para la batera experimental, el equipo de Stanford coloca el nodo y el ctodo de grafito de
aluminio, junto con un electrolito lquido inico, dentro de una bolsa recubierta con
polmeros flexible.

"El electrolito es bsicamente una sal que es lquido a temperatura ambiente, por lo que es
muy seguro", dijo el estudiante graduado de Stanford Ming Gong, co-autor principal del
estudio de la naturaleza.
Bateras de aluminio son ms seguras que las bateras de iones de litio convencionales que
se utilizan en millones de ordenadores porttiles y telfonos mviles de hoy, aadi Dai.

"En nuestro estudio, tenemos videos que demuestran que se puede perforar a travs de la
bolsa de la batera de aluminio, dijo Dai. "Pero las bateras de litio pueden apagarse de
manera impredecible - en el aire, el coche o en el bolsillo Adems de la seguridad, hemos
logrado grandes avances en el rendimiento de la batera de aluminio."
Un ejemplo es la carga ultra rpida. Pero el equipo de Stanford inform "tiempos de carga
sin precedentes" de hasta un minuto con el prototipo de aluminio.
La durabilidad es otro factor importante. Bateras de aluminio desarrolladas en otros
laboratorios generalmente murieron despus de slo 100 ciclos de carga-descarga. Pero la
batera Stanford fue capaz de soportar ms de 7500 ciclos sin ninguna prdida de
capacidad. "Esta fue la primera vez que una batera de iones de aluminio ultra-rpida se
construy con la estabilidad de miles de ciclos", escribieron los autores.

6
"Otra de las caractersticas de la batera de aluminio es la flexibilidad", dijo Gong. "Se
puede doblar y doblar, por lo que tiene el potencial para su uso en dispositivos electrnicos
flexibles. El aluminio es tambin un metal ms barato que el litio".

Aplicaciones
Adems de pequeos dispositivos electrnicos, las bateras de aluminio se podran utilizar
para almacenar la energa renovable en la red elctrica, dijo Dai.
"La red necesita una batera con un largo ciclo de vida que puede almacenar rpidamente y
entregar energa", explic. "Nuestros ltimos datos publicados sugieren que una batera de
aluminio se puede recargar a decenas de miles de veces. Es difcil imaginar la construccin
de una batera enorme de iones de litio para almacenamiento de red."
"Millones de consumidores utilizan AA de 1,5 voltios y AAA", dijo. "Nuestra batera
recargable de aluminio genera alrededor de dos voltios de electricidad. Eso es ms alto de
lo que nadie ha logrado con el aluminio."
"Nuestra batera produce cerca de la mitad de la tensin de una batera de litio tpica", dijo.
"Pero la mejora del material de ctodo podra llegar a aumentar la densidad de la tensin y
la energa lo contrario, nuestra batera tiene todo lo ms que te soar que una batera debe
tener:.. Electrodos de bajo costo, buena seguridad, carga de alta velocidad, flexibilidad y
largo ciclo de vida.