Argonne National Lab

Building a Better Battery with Machine Learning

Designing the best molecular building blocks for battery components is like trying to create a recipe for a new kind of cake, when you have billions of potential ingredients. The challenge involves determining which ingredients work best together — or, more simply, produce an edible (or, in the case of batteries, a safe) product.

Ripple in Flexible Material Could Improve Electronic Properties

Two-dimensional materials — those either only an atom or layer thick — display a number of interesting properties and could form the foundation for a range of new devices. One of these materials, molybdenum disulfide, has shown an unusual flexibility that could make it attractive as a semiconducting component of bendable electronics.

Collaboration Reviews Battery Recycling Process for Electric Vehicles

The US Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory has collaborated with the Faraday Institution in a newly released Nature review of challenges and opportunities associated with recycling lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles.

Invention of Teeny-Tiny Organic Films Could Enable New Electronics

The first cell phone, released in 1983, was the size of a brick and weighed two-and-a-half pounds. The newest Apple Watch, released this fall, weighs 1.1 ounces.

Shedding New Light on the Charging of Lithium-ion Batteries

Exposing cathodes to light decreases charge time by a factor of two in lithium-ion batteries. Researchers have reported a new mechanism to speed up the charging of lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles. Simply exposing the cathode to a beam of concentrated light -- for example, the white light from a xenon lamp -- lowers the battery charging time by a remarkable factor of two or more. If commercialized, such technology could be a game changer for electric vehicles.

New electrolyte stops rapid decline of next-gen lithium battery

The lithium-ion battery is ubiquitous. Because of its versatility, this battery can be tailored to powering cell phones, laptops, power tools or electric vehicles. It is now the source of a multibillion-dollar enterprise annually that continues to grow each year.

Six degrees of nuclear separation

Scientists look to 3D printing to ease separation anxiety, which paves the way to recycle more nuclear material.

New materials to help stop lithium-ion battery fires

From automobiles and planes to laptops and e-bikes, lithium-ion batteries have been blamed for causing fires in high-tech devices. Now scientists have come up with patented techniques that may cut down the risk from these popular batteries, which are found in everyday devices such as phones and tablets.

Finding keyholes in metals 3D printing

New research has identified how and when tiny gas pockets form, as well as a methodology to predict their formation - a pivotal discovery that could dramatically improve the 3D printing process.

Consortium promises 'big leap' in performance for energy storage tech

A global battery consortium charged with advancing lead battery technology has re-launched as it prepares to unveil a raft of new research designed to take the technology to the next level.

USA DOE launches lithium ion battery recycling R&D Centre: ReCell

The use of lithium-ion batteries has surged in recent years, starting with electronics and expanding into many applications, including the growing electric and hybrid vehicle industry. But the technologies to optimize recycling of these batteries has not kept pace.

Unleashing perovskites' potential for solar cells

Researchers have been able to decipher a key aspect of the behavior of perovskites made with different formulations: With certain additives there is a kind of "sweet spot" where greater amounts will enhance performance and beyond which further amounts begin to degrade it.

Sodium ion battery research could power up renewable energy storage

Longer life and increased capacity for a new technology battery that could be the workhorse of a renewable energy grid are the goals of a study of the effect of charging cycles on the structure of anodes in sodium ion batteries.

Maximizing the effectiveness of platinum in fuel cells

Platinum is a precious metal more rare than silver or gold. Renowned in the fuel cell community for its effectiveness in converting hydrogen and oxygen into water and electricity, platinum offers unrivaled activity and stability for electrochemical reactions. But platinum is both scarce and expensive, which means scientists are looking to create practical fuel cell catalysts that use far less of the costly precious metal.

3D imaging technique unlocks properties of perovskite crystals

A team of materials scientists have, for the first time, visualized the 3D atomic and electron density structure of the most complex perovskite crystal structure system decoded to date.

Manganese may finally solve hydrogen fuel cells' catalyst problem

Manganese is known for making stainless steel and aluminum soda cans. Now, researchers say the metal could advance one of the most promising sources of renewable energy: hydrogen fuel cells.

Safer, more efficient rechargeable batteries

Materials scientists have sussed out the physical phenomenon underlying the promising electrical properties of a class of materials called superionic crystals. A better understanding of such materials could lead to safer and more efficient rechargeable batteries than the current standard-bearer of lithium ion.