Argonne Scientists Could Make Solid-State Batteries Viable

The Argonne National Laboratory could help double the range of electric cars in the near future – researchers have suggested that solid-state batteries might be viable sooner than we think.

If you’ve spent any time around electric vehicles – or any portable devices over the last couple decades, you’ve been inundated with lithium-ion batteries. These small, light, efficient sources of power require low maintenance, sport low self-discharge, charge relatively quickly, and last awhile.

By any measure, they’re an objective improvement over nickel-cadmium batteries.

But lithium-ion also requires circuit protection and they’re coming up a bit short on the EV front.

Solid-state batteries – which trade the liquid or gel of lithium-ion for a thin, solid film – sport about 2.5x the energy density of their predecessors. In theory, this could dramatically increase the range of electric vehicles.

There’s just one problem – as early adopters of solid-state lighting can attest to, solid-state tech is expensive. That said, chemists at Argonne have been studying the basic chemistry of solid-state batteries for awhile now, and according to the laboratory, scientists at Argonne’s Materials Engineering Research Facility (MERF) are working towards bringing a viable form of the tech to market.

“The manufacturing processes and technologies we’re developing at the MERF have specific advantages — faster processing, pressureless sintering, large-scale uniformity and higher density — over those currently used,” said Jessica Durham, of Argonne’s Applied Materials division.

These manufacturing advantages could help drop the cost of the batteries, while improvements to the sintering process allow the scientists to use lithium metal instead of graphite, thereby doubling the battery’s energy density.

It’s an optimistic glimpse at the future of electric vehicles (and possibly eliminating “range anxiety” for good).

​“At the MERF, we develop cost-effective processes for making new materials by replacing expensive components, lowering energy consumption, reducing waste and improving processing conditions without sacrificing the performance of the material,” said Durham.