Prof. Thomas F. Fässler in seinem Labor am Lehrstuhl für Anorganische Chemie mit Schwerpunkt Neue Materialien. Foto: Robert Reich/TUM
Solid-state batteries are regarded as an important technology for the future: they can store more energy and are not made of flammable materials like the lithium batteries currently in use. Researchers at TUM and the TUMint.Energy Research GmbH, have now taken an important step towards improving solid-state batteries. They have developed a new material made of lithium, antimony and scandium that conducts lithium ions more than 30% faster than all previously known materials.
The team led by Prof. Thomas F. Fässler from the Chair of Inorganic Chemistry with a focus on new materials replaced some of the lithium in the lithium antimonide compound with the metal scandium. This creates specific gaps, so-called vacancies, in the crystal lattice of the conductor material. These gaps help the lithium ions to move more easily and faster and made the new world record possible.
As the value is so significantly higher than that of known materials, they turned to the Chair of Technical Electrochemistry led by Prof. Hubert Gasteiger at TUM to confirm the result. Co-author Tobias Kutsch, who carried out the further tests, commented: “Because the material also conducts electricity, this was a particular challenge and we had to adapt our measurement methods accordingly.”
Fässler sees great potential for the new material: “Our result currently represents a significant advance in basic research. By incorporating small amounts of scandium, we have discovered a new principle that could prove to be groundbreaking for other element combinations. Many tests are still required before it can be used in a battery cell. We are confident because materials that can conduct both ions and electrons are particularly suitable as additives in electrodes. As this could result in promising practical applications, we have already applied for a patent for our development.” In addition to the higher speed, the material also offers thermal stability and is easy to produce using proven chemical processes.
The researchers have even discovered a completely new class of substances with their work, as first author Jingwen Jiang, researcher at TUMint.Energy Research GmbH, emphasizes: “Our combination consists of lithium antimony and can also be easily transferred to lithium phosphorus. While the previous record holder was based on lithium-sulphur and required five additional elements for optimization, we only need scandium as an additional component. We assume that our discovery can have significance beyond this example for increasing the conductivity of other substances.”
You can read this and other articles on the subject of electromobility & autonomous driving in the current issue of eMove360°. PDF download free of charge or order the handy and beautiful printed version in the online Shop.
You are currently viewing a placeholder content from Google Maps. To access the actual content, click the button below. Please note that doing so will share data with third-party providers.
More InformationYou need to load content from reCAPTCHA to submit the form. Please note that doing so will share data with third-party providers.
More Information
