Multi-functional carbon fiber structural battery successfully developed! Expected to increase the range of electric vehicles by 70%.
When cars, airplanes, ships, or computers are made with a material that can serve as both a battery and a load-bearing structure, their weight and energy consumption will be significantly reduced. According to a paper published on the 10th in the latest issue of Advanced Materials, a research team from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden has made progress in "massless energy storage" and developed a multifunctional carbon fiber structural battery. This battery could halve the weight of laptops, make smartphones as thin as credit cards, or increase the range of electric vehicles by 70% on a single charge.
Ricardo Chaudhry, a researcher at Chalmers University of Technology, stated that the structural battery they developed is made from carbon fiber composites, with stiffness comparable to aluminum, and energy density sufficient for commercial application. A structural battery is a material that can both store energy and bear loads. Making battery materials an integral part of the product's actual structure means that products like electric vehicles, drones, handheld tools, laptops, and smartphones can achieve reduced weight.
Electric vehicles largely depend on large lithium-ion batteries for long-distance travel. Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology wanted to see if they could create a battery that serves as a load-bearing material to hold the vehicle together while also reducing weight. As part of the "massless energy storage" project, the Swedish research team developed a battery made from carbon fiber composites. This battery has hardness similar to aluminum and can store a considerable amount of energy, making it suitable for commercial use
Carbon fiber batteries are expected to store energy and support loads similarly to aluminum batteries.
Indeed, carbon fiber is renowned for its incredible lightweight, high strength, and high rigidity, making it a popular choice in the structural and aesthetic materials of high-performance vehicles. Despite its high cost, it is also a critical material in aerospace applications, where every gram counts. However, if designed with electrochemical engineering for this purpose, it can also serve as an effective electrode material. Led by Professor Leif Asp, the Chalmers team has been researching this area for many years and published a study in 2018 that first demonstrated this property of carbon fibers with a specific crystal arrangement.
Researchers Xia Zhenyuan, Ricardo Chaudhry, and Professor Leif Asp have been studying the concept of massless energy storage for many years.
The energy density of the new battery design is 30 Wh/kg, which, by automotive standards, is not particularly high. For reference, the rated energy density of the Hyundai Ioniq 6's 53 kWh battery pack is 153 Wh/kg (PDF). However, this figure represents only the energy density of the battery pack housed in a box; for a fair comparison, the weight of the entire vehicle structure must also be considered. The design of this carbon fiber structural battery aims to replace the entire chassis, reducing the overall vehicle weight while freeing up space.
Electric vehicle and equipment manufacturers can leverage this new equation to either significantly reduce product weight or use the freed-up space to add more batteries, thereby enhancing overall energy storage capacity.
These results could be revolutionary in practice. Asp stated, "We conducted calculations on electric vehicles, and the results indicate that if electric vehicles adopted competitive structural batteries, their driving time could be extended by 70% compared to current models."
The hardness of the team's latest prototype is nearly three times that of previous iterations, with the elastic modulus increasing from 25 GPa to 70 GPa. The team claims that its hardness and load-bearing capacity are now comparable to aluminum, but it is much lighter.
This battery design utilizes carbon fiber in both the anode and cathode, which also serves to reinforce and conduct electricity. As a result, there is no need for heavy materials like copper to create current collectors, nor is there a requirement to use conflict metals like cobalt in the electrode design.
This battery design uses carbon fiber materials for both the anode and cathode.
Additionally, this battery employs a semi-solid electrolyte instead of a liquid electrolyte to facilitate the movement of lithium ions between terminals. As a result, it is less flammable and safer to use-though the research team acknowledges that there are still challenges in allowing ions to pass quickly through the electrolyte to meet the demands of high-power applications. More research is needed in this area.
Indeed, this is just another lab prototype battery, so these next-generation electric vehicles and devices will take several more years to develop. However, large-scale production and commercialization are already underway. As early as 2022, the university partnered with the venture capital firm Chalmers Ventures in Gothenburg to establish a new company called Sinonus. This company appointed a new CEO in June of this year to drive the commercialization of massless energy storage, which could change the way we manufacture cars, gadgets, and even wind turbine blades.
Asp stated, "We can envision mobile phones that are as thin as a credit card or laptops that weigh only half of what they do now being the closest in terms of timeline. Components such as electronics in cars or airplanes could also be powered by structural batteries. This will require significant investment to meet the challenging energy demands of the transportation industry, but this is where the technology can have the greatest impact."
