http://qz.com/678040/doubts-have-been-raised-about-a-cambridge-professors-acclaimed-battery-breakthrough/ Doubts have been raised about a Cambridge professor’s acclaimed battery breakthrough May 07, 2016 Steve LeVine
[image https://qzprod.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/battery-e1462568109627.jpg?quality=80&strip=all&w=768 (Reuters/Regis Duvignau) ] Scientists have disputed a claimed breakthrough in one of the most promising fields of advanced battery research, casting fresh doubt on efforts to leapfrog current lithium-ion technology. The questions have been raised about an advance announced by Clare Grey, a prominent battery researcher at Cambridge University, who created a stir in October with a paper published [ http://science.sciencemag.org/content/350/6260/530 ] by the prestigious peer-reviewed journal Science. In the paper, Grey described a breakthrough with “lithium-air,” a theoretical technology that, if it could be made to work, could possess more than five times the energy density of current lithium-ion batteries, and roughly the same density as gasoline. Such a system would solve the shortcomings of current lithium-ion batteries, which are costly and weigh too much to allow electrics to compete with equivalently priced gasoline-propelled cars. Electric cars to be launched over the next few years from GM, Tesla, and others will cost $35,000 and go 200 miles, but if lithium-air were solved, such vehicles would go much farther, and cost much less. “New battery could power electric car from London to Edinburgh on a single charge,” a distance of 400 miles, read the headline at the UK’s Daily Telegraph [ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/11964217/New-battery-could-power-electric-car-from-London-to-Edinburgh-on-single-charge.html ], reporting on Grey’s Oct. 29 announcement. But in two dissents published at Science on May 6, researchers at seven universities and national laboratories in the US, China, and Australia contend that Grey’s paper contained errors, and that her claims could not be replicated. Grey replied in the same issue of the magazine, but did not appear to contest the substance of their objections. A battery’s energy is derived from the composition and action of its two electrodes. In this case, the theory is that air would be made to flow in and out of a battery, serving as one of the two electrodes, and essentially weightless. The second electrode would be highly energetic metallic lithium. Combined, such a system would produce a light, energetic battery that would challenge the gasoline-powered internal combustion engine head to head. A principal challenge faced by researchers, however, has been that lithium-air batteries have refused to recharge more than a few tens of times; the system has only grudgingly released the oxygen necessary for the air flow after it’s been absorbed. Leading US labs, discouraged by failed attempts to resolve such problems, have stopped trying [ http://qz.com/214969/two-big-labs-most-promising-next-generation-battery-electric-car/ ]. But in her paper [ https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/10/151029152629.htm ], Grey and six researchers in her Cambridge group proposed resolving the recharge problem [ http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/149ca550-7e30-11e5-a1fe-567b37f80b64.html#axzz47pIPq5jS ] (paywall) by involving two compounds as mediators— lithium iodide and water—along with fluffy carbon. No one appears to have previously combined all three compounds, at least for the purpose of a lithium-air battery. The result, Grey’s group reported, was a battery that charged and recharged 2,000 times—a remarkable achievement, if true. A decade more of work would be required to resolve other problems with lithium-air, but one big obstacle was lifted. Both dissents, however, say that the compound does not have the claimed impact. They say the special additive used by Grey’s group, lithium iodide, does not produce sufficient energy to force release of the air from the lithium hydroxide, and thus solve the recharging problem. “The breakthrough is not a breakthrough, and we are in a sense no further along in lithium air than we were,” Venkat Viswanathan, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University and the lead author on one of the dissents, told Quartz. Grey has not responded to an email requesting a comment. Here is the dissent [ http://science.sciencemag.org/content/352/6286/667.3 ] led by Viswananthan. He wrote it with Vikram Pande, also at Carnegie-Mellon; K.M. Abraham at Northeastern University; Alan Luntz at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center; Bryan McCloskey at the University of California, Berkeley; and Dan Addison at Liox Power. Here is Grey’s response to it [ http://science.sciencemag.org/content/352/6286/667.4 ]. And here is the second dissent [ http://science.sciencemag.org/content/352/6286/667.1 ], written by Yue Shen and Wang Zhang at Huazhong University; and Shu-Lei Chou and Shi-Xue Dou at Australia’s University of Wollongong. Here is Grey’s response to their [ http://science.sciencemag.org/content/352/6286/667.2 ] dissent. [© qz.com] ... http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2015-10/30/lithium-air-breathing-battery-electric-cars Lithium-air 'breathing' battery makes long-distance electric cars possible Oct 30, 2015 - Tao Liu, Clare Grey and Gabriella Bocchetti ... An efficient lithium-oxygen (Li-O2) battery that can be recharged more than 2,000 times could make truly long-distance electric cars possible ... their battery includes a highly porous graphene electrode, made from one-atom-thick sheets of carbon atoms and an electrolyte made from the organic solvent dimethoxyethane, mixed with the salt lithium iodide ... ... http://www.ch.cam.ac.uk/person/cpg27 Professor Clare Grey FRS [dated] http://cleantechnica.com/2016/01/26/lithium-air-batteries-with-5x-energy-density-lithium-ion-batteries/ Lithium-Air Batteries With 5x Energy Density Lithium-Ion Batteries ... Jan 26, 2016 - A new lithium-oxygen battery design based around the use of lithium superoxide (LiO2) — promising an energy density up to 5 times higher ... ... http://www.treehugger.com/renewable-energy/lithium-air-battery-breakthough-confirmed-energy-density.html Breakthough in lithium-air batteries Jan 26, 2016 ... (that's science-speak for "we proved our suspicion that we have indeed invented a lithium-air battery technology that works") ... ... http://www.pcworld.com/article/2999884/fluffy-carbon-electrodes-bring-lithium-air-batteries-closer-to-reality.html Fluffy carbon electrodes bring lithium-air batteries closer to reality Oct 30, 2015 - Ten times more power than lithium ion -- but still ten years off: A fluffy carbon electrode has brought scientists at Cambridge University a step closer to producing a workable lithium-air battery, but many technical challenges remain ... ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium–air_battery The lithium-air battery, Li-air for short, is a metal-air battery chemistry that uses oxidation of lithium at the anode and reduction of oxygen at the cathode to induce ... 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