Metals Tech

The Cadillac Lyriq is one of the first vehicles to use GM’s Ultium platform. This drivetrain system now underpins all of its current and upcoming electric vehicles, other than the outgoing Chevy Bolt EV. After driving the Lyriq and liking it very much, I was interested in the precise details of the car’s pack and the larger Ultium system. So […]

CATL has unveiled a new lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cell that offers 620 miles of range on a single charge and ultra-fast charging that can bring 370 additional miles of traveling in ten minutes, according to internal tests. This morning, CATL held an event to unveil its Shenxing Plus LFP battery, which was unveiled during […]

There’s been a lot of interest in Tesla’s 4680 batteries since before they were even announced, but their development and ramp-up have been a bit below par in terms of most people’s expectations. I’ve seen various claims about these, and those claims have diverged quite a bit as time has gone on, so it was […]

The electrode sheet of a thermoelectric device consists of ionic hydrogel, which is sandwiched between the electrodes to form, and the Prussian blue on the electrode undergoes a redox reaction to improve the energy density and power density of the ionic thermoelectric generator. New research on this topic appears in Energy Material Advances. Prof. Zeng Wei of the […]

Researchers from Skoltech and their colleagues have improved the properties of a carbon-based electrode material by exposing it to air plasma. Such treatment turned out to enhance electrode performance, which is the limiting factor for high-tech energy sources—particularly fuel cells. These are a promising technology for cleaner and more efficient electrical power generation. Published in the Journal of […]

The quest to generate more energy from less material while avoiding burning any more fossil fuels than our planet can handle is spawning some, let’s say, creative ideas. Nuclear fusion records are being smashed, even if only by the tiniest of margins and seconds at a time. Meanwhile, solar panels are becoming increasingly efficient as […]

Sodium (Na), which is over 500 times more abundant than lithium (Li), has recently garnered significant attention for its potential in sodium-ion battery technologies. However, existing sodium-ion batteries face fundamental limitations, including lower power output, constrained storage properties, and longer charging times, necessitating the development of next-generation energy storage materials. A research team led by […]

The energy density of supercapacitors—battery-like devices that can charge in seconds or a few minutes—can be improved by increasing the ‘messiness’ of their internal structure. Researchers led by the University of Cambridge used experimental and computer modeling techniques to study the porous carbon electrodes used in supercapacitors. They found that electrodes with a more disordered […]

Last year, demand for lithium-ion batteries that went into electric vehicles and stationary storage amounted to roughly 950 gigawatt-hours globally, according to estimates from BloombergNEF. At the same time, the total battery manufacturing capacity was almost triple, at about 2,600 GWh. At the end of next year, the total global announced battery manufacturing capacity is said […]

Most people do not give the U.S. electric grid a second thought—we flip a switch, and the lights come on. Behind the scenes are thousands of power plants and utilities linked by millions of miles of transmission lines. To make raw electricity useful, grid transformers convert high voltage to lower voltage that millions of households […]