Daimler buys 10% stake in Tesla
By | May 19, 2009
When a major car manufacturer gets into bed with a small electric car company it makes us think that there might be more to battery powered automobiles. During a press conference held at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart this morning, Dr. Thomas Weber, the head of research and development for Mercedes-Benz, announced that Daimler is buying a 10% stake in Tesla Motors. Tesla CEO Elon Musk was also on hand for the announcement. The companies did not specify the amount paid by Daimler, other than it was in the double digit millions. Daimler will be providing Tesla with engineering support and possibly parts that may go into the Model S. Tesla, meanwhile, will continue providing battery packs for the second-generation Smart ED starting later this year. Tesla will also focus on battery pack integration and battery management systems for Daimler going forward.
Daimler’s Prof. Herbert Kohler (who is in charge of e-drive systems at the German automaker) will take up a board seat at Tesla and oversee development at the California Company.
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Carbon Nanotube Lengthens Battery Life
By | May 12, 2009
Carbon nanotubes tiny tubular structures composed of a single layer of carbon atoms lengthens the life of batteries, according to new research. Findings suggest that the diminutive tubes can hold twice the energy as graphite, the form of carbon currently used as an electrode in many rechargeable lithium batteries.
The reduction and oxidation reactions that occur at the electrodes of batteries produce a flow of electrons that generate and store energy. Conventional graphite electrodes can reversibly store one lithium ion for every six carbon atoms. To investigate the storage capacity of carbon nanotubes, researchers first created bundles of the single-walled straws. They then shortened the tubes and opened their ends by immersing them in strong acids.
Subsequent tests of their energy-holding potential, conducted using electrochemistry and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, revealed an electrical storage capacity approximately double that of graphite. In explanation, the scientists note that the tubes’ open ends facilitated the diffusion of lithium atoms into their interiors. Indeed, the tiny straws managed to reversibly store one charged ion for every three carbon atoms.
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Carbon Nanotube Battery Developed
By | April 28, 2009
Companies have been trying to figure out how to use carbon nanotubes in electronics. Batteries may be the answer, say researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The device is a piece of paper infused with carbon nanotubes and a salt, which serves as an electrolyte. Because it stores energy and conducts it, the device can act like a battery. A number of corporate labs and universities have come up with flexible batteries in the past.
Paper Power from Israel makes a flexible battery printed on polymers that relies on zinc as an electrolyte. It sells it to the cosmetics industry. Japan Inc. also has trotted out a lot of prototypes. Still, these things haven’t gone commercial so any advance is welcome.
As an added bonus, the RPI device can deliver power over a long period of time, like a battery, or lots of power in a short burst, like a capacitor.
It’s essentially a regular piece of paper, but it’s made in a very intelligent way, said Robert Linhardt, the Ann and John H. Broadbent ‘59 Senior Constellation Professor of Biocatalysis and Metabolic Engineering at Rensselaer, in a prepared statement.
Carbon nanotubes have been the celebrity of the material science circuit for the past decade or so. Among their other attributes, nanotubes conduct electricity more efficiently than metal. They are also flexible, although stronger than steel. Right now, they are somewhat expensive, but mass manufacturing will drop the price. The only element is carbon, after all.
Conceivably, these paper batteries could be stacked up in a device to give it power. They could be used to insert electronic computers into luggage tags or greeting cards or into larger devices.
But it is a long road. Battery technology, and the adoption by equipment makers, takes a long time. But that technology is final here our new CNT carbon nanotube battery is ready for production with huge potental for the electric car industry. Based on test results our batteries will deliver 350-380 miles between charges and will charge in 10 minutes.
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Chrysler Unveiling Green Battery Minivan for U.S.P.S.
By | April 22, 2009
Chrysler is celebrating Earth Day today by unveiling the first four of what will be a fleet of 250 battery powered minivans for the US Postal Service. The U.S.P.S. will be using the vans for variety of duties at locations around the country – including daily home delivery.
The vans themselves are based on the concept Town and Country EV that was unveiled last fall by Chrysler. However, because of the duty cycle used by the Postal Service – which generally amounts to only about 18-20 miles per day on a fixed route – these vehicles are being built without the range extender seen on the concept. However, the electric drive portion of the vehicles, including the motor, electronics and A123 System lithium ion battery pack is identical. The head of Chrysler’s ENVI division Lou Rhodes told Autoblog Green this morning that Chrysler is marketing this battery-only version of the van to commercial fleet customers who typically have a shorter range requirements. The extended-range version will be focused on retail customers.
The initial batch of vehicles include a pair of right- and left-hand drive versions, and the total fleet will include a mix. The Postal Service will be using the vehicles for whatever applications they have in different regions of the country. The intent is to evaluate the usability of electric vans, as well as the interaction between the vehicles and the infrastructure. In addition to the post office, Consolidated Edison (Con Ed), Duke Energy, DTE Energy and Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) will participate in the test program.
Credit: by Sam Abuelsamid on Apr 22nd, 2009
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Carbon nanotubes for lithium ion batteries
By | April 22, 2009
Lithium ion batteries have received considerable attention in applications, ranging from portable electronics to electric vehicles, due to their superior energy density over other rechargeable battery technologies. However, the societal demands for lighter, thinner, and higher capacity lithium ion batteries necessitate ongoing research for novel materials with improved properties over that of state-of-the-art. Such an effort requires a concerted development of both electrodes and electrolyte to improve battery capacity, cycle life, and charge-discharge rates while maintaining the highest degree of safety available.
Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are a candidate material for use in lithium ion batteries due to their unique set of electrochemical and mechanical properties. The incorporation of CNTs as a conductive additive at a lower weight loading than conventional carbons, like carbon black and graphite, presents a more effective strategy to establish an electrical percolation network. In addition, CNTs have the capability to be assembled into free-standing electrodes (absent of any binder or current collector) as an active lithium ion storage material or as a physical support for ultra high capacity anode materials like silicon or germanium.
The measured reversible lithium ion capacities for CNT-based anodes can exceed 1000 mAh g depending on experimental factors, which as a 3x improvement over conventional graphite anodes. The major advantage from utilizing free-standing CNT anodes is the removal of the copper current collectors which can translate into an increase in specific energy density by more than 50% for the overall battery design.
Article citation: Brian J. Landi, Energy Environ. Sci
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Need for Nanotube Battery
By | April 15, 2009
Need: There is a need for a new battery with low internal impedance and high capacity, as well as one that discharges over a long period of time relative to conventional batteries. The nanotube battery, according to this case, is such a battery, and may be applied to batteries as structures, sensors, sensor networks, remote controlled toys and vehicles, battery integrated-integrated microprocessors and controllers, and so on.
Technical Description: The generalized element of the nanotube battery includes a polymer or silicon matrix base that is 10-20 µm thick, to which is fixed nanotubes having a length of 2-15 µm, an inner diameter of 10 nm to 4 µm, and an outer diameter of 20 nm to 5 µm. The nanotubes may be made from metals and/or metal oxides such as nickel, copper, tantalum, gold, titanium oxide, etc. A conducting layer is deposited on the matrix and in contact with exteriors of the nanotubes, but it is applied so that the interiors of the nanotubes remain open (i.e., free of the conducting layer so as to be accessible to being filled with chemicals). The conducting layer may be connected so as to form a cathode or anode electrode. The nanotubes are filled with energy-storing and energy-discharging chemicals such as oxides and hydroxides of nickel, cadmium, silver, zinc, and lithium (and compositions thereof). The energy-storing and energy-discharging chemicals fill 50-80% of the volume of each of the nanotubes.
The structure generalized above, which may serve as either an anode or cathode battery layer, is repeated in anode and cathode layers to form a battery. That is, the battery includes (i) a cathode layer, including a cathode matrix, nanotubes fixed thereto filled with a cathode chemical, and a conducting layer thereon, and (ii) an anode layer, including an anode matrix, nanotubes fixed thereto filled with an anode chemical, and a conducting layer thereon. The cathode and anode layers are attached, so that their respective conducting layers do not touch, to form a battery cell. Stacking layers upon layers builds up a battery of desired thickness and voltage.
Images of the technology are shown in Figure 1.
Stage of Development: Preliminarily reduced to practice, but not tested extensively
Figure 1. (a) Ni nanotubes arranged in situ in a 10-µm-thick polymer matrix. (b) A magnified view of a Ni nanotube after etching the polymer away. (c) Initial stages of filling the nanotubes with an energy-storing/energy-discharging chemical. (d) Layering a cathode and an anode matrix on each other to form one cell, with the electrolyte in between and conducting gold coatings on the outside surfaces. (e) Layering two (or more) cells to form a battery.
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CNT Battery Detailed Description
By | April 14, 2009
DETAIL DESCRIPTION
The present Active Carbon Nanofiber-based (CNT-Carbon Nanotube) electrical high performance battery comprises a cell trough filled with electrolyte, a spring coil locking onto said cell trough, an anode/cathode substrate plate installed within said cell trough with its separation membrane, and positive and negative terminals installed outside the cell cap connecting to said anode/cathode substrate plate respectively. The anode substrate plate is composed of an aluminum plate and an active Carbon Nanofiber layer spray-coated on the aluminum plate surface. The Cathode substrate plate is composed of copper plate and an active Carbon Nanofiber layer spray-coated on the copper plate surface.
Active Carbon Nanofiber itself contains quantum sizing effect, micro sizing effect, surface effect, and Macroscopic Quantum Tunneling. It has a very large relative surface area, very high activity and density rate, high heat dissipation rate, and large dispersion rate. Even passing through a high current it only results in very small current concentration. As the result anode/cathode substrate plates made from said Carbon Nanofiber can pass through very large recharging and discharging electrical current without causing joule heat, nor accompanying heat effects. Therefore, it greatly reduces recharging time. This present invention well mingles speedy electrical recharging by high-physical electrical current flow, with slow electrical discharging by chemical long period low voltage low current flow.
The individual tube diameter of the Carbon Nanofiber is 20-80 nm, with the length of 200-300 nm. The actively characteristics and its relatively large surface area of said tube is most fitted into the manufacture of the anode/cathode substrate plate.
There exists a gap between each set of the substrate plate and its separation membrane, forming a capacitor-like functionality. The separation membrane is made by high-molecule, high- insulation cloth, with the size of the battery inner trough. Since this combination equals to a parallel connection between said capacitor and the battery, and this combination has both characteristics of an uf-class capacitor and a high-capacity battery, the equivalent circuit of this combination can be resembled to a parallel connection of one uf-class capacitor and one high-capacity battery.
To further analyze the equivalent circuit:
When discharging starts, the capacitor discharges first, which would fit with the high current discharging process. During extra long discharging time, the battery may discharge slowly, which would have the characteristic of long time discharging process. The total discharging current amount will equal to the sum current from the capacitor and the battery. When charging starts, the capacitor charges first, that would prevent the possible explosion from the overloaded current. The total charging current will equal to the charged current sum of the capacitor and the battery. This combination is similar to the outer circuit parallelly connected with several capacitors.
Battery has the same working voltage V as capacitors, barring interactions between the two elements. If the battery current was said to be I, the output would be E=IV. If the capacity of the capacitor was said to be C, the output would be W=½ CV2. As the result, output power sum is P=E+W. Power sum is in fact way larger than battery or one single capacitor. While the weight of the device decreased, the power ratio dramatically increased.
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Embodiment of CNT Battery
By | April 14, 2009
There are three possible embodiments as follows.
1. A Carbon-based Nanotube (CNT) battery comprises of a battery cell trough, electrolyte, a spring coil, an anode/cathode substrate plate and its separation membrane 40, and external positive and negative terminals. The anode substrate plate is composed of an aluminum plate and an active Carbon Nanofiber layer. Negative terminal plate is composed of a copper plate and an active Carbon Nanofiber layer. The individual tube diameter of the Carbon Nanofiber layer is 20 nm, with the length of 290 nm. There exists a gap in between each set of the substrate plate and its separation membrane 40, forming the capacity-like functionality having an equivalent effect as a parallel connection of a battery and a capacitor. The separation membrane is made by high-molecule, high-insulation cloth, with the size of the battery inner trough. Said Carbon-based Nanotube (CNT) battery is able to allow high current recharging/discharging process, with 1/17 charging time than before. The power ratio is 8 times higher than lead-based batteries. The weight of the battery is dramatically reduced.
2. A Carbon-based Nanotube (CNT) battery comprises of a battery cell trough, electrolyte, a spring coil, an anode/cathode substrate plate and its separation membrane, and external positive and negative terminals. The anode substrate plate is composed of an aluminum plate and an active Carbon Nanofiber layer. Negative terminal plate is composed of a copper plate and an active Carbon Nanofiber layer. The individual tube diameter of the Carbon Nanofiber layer is 80 nm, with the length of 300 nm. Same as embodiment 1, said Carbon-based Nanotube (CNT) battery is able to allow high current recharging/discharging process, with 1/10 charging time than before. The power ratio is 8 times higher than lead-based batteries. The weight of the battery is dramatically reduced.
3. A Carbon-based Nanotube (CNT) battery comprises of a battery cell trough, electrolyte, a spring coil, an anode/cathode substrate plate and its separation membrane, and external positive and negative terminals. The anode substrate plate is composed of an aluminum plate and an active Carbon Nanofiber layer. Negative terminal plate is composed of a copper plate and an active Carbon Nanofiber layer. The individual tube diameter of the Carbon Nanofiber layer is 60 nm, with the length of 200 nm. Same as embodiment 1, said Carbon-based Nanotube (CNT) battery is able to allow high current recharging/discharging process, with 1/20 charging lime than before. The power ratio is 10 times higher than lead-based batteries. The weight of the battery is dramatically reduced.
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The Benefits of CNT Battery
By | April 14, 2009
The present invention provides an Active Carbon Nanotube battery (CNT), which can receive and provide large current recharging/discharging to shorten charging time, and has a high power ratio to reduce the battery weight in order to broaden the battery application scope in modern life. The reduced weight and the increased charging current of this CNT battery dramatically increased the whole power ratio to 300 Wh/Kg, while the action power can reach higher than 1000 W/Kg. The present invention has both battery and capacitor’s characteristics. The capacitor is from 8 uf to 3000 uf, and the battery capacity is from 150 mAH to 200 AH. The battery action current can reach 20000 AH. The weight of the invention is only one eleventh ( 1/11) and the volume is only one sixth (?) comparing to a lead-based battery. The shortest charging time is 90 seconds. It can be widely applied in industrial field, mass transportation, national defense purposes etc.
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Enhanced Capacitors
By | April 13, 2009
Currently, ultracapacitors can only hold a small fraction of the electrical charge that batteries can hold (about 5%), but they do have many very important advantages over their chemical cousins, such as no battery memory caused by partial discharging, no reduction in capacity with each charge (they last almost forever), and much faster charge-discharge times. If only we could improve their capacity… Well, we’re getting there. Read on!
The way to increase ultracapacitor capacity is to increase surface area inside of them.
By replacing the porous activated carbon used in ultracapacitors with tightly bunched nanotubes, Schindall believed that the ion-collecting surface area could be increased by as much as five. Since current ultracapacitors can store around 5 percent of the energy in an equivalent-size battery, the addition of nanowires could bring this up to 25 percent. “And you can also operate [the ultracapacitor] at a higher voltage with the nanotubes, and that’s about another factor of two in energy,” he says. “We are hopeful-we haven’t proven it-that we can get up somewhere between 25 and 50 percent of a battery’s energy. At that point, it becomes a compelling device for many applications.”
This would completely change the game, because batteries in hybrids and electric vehicles are never fully discharged to prolong their life. In fact, there’s only about 15% that is used, so an ultracapacitor with 25-50% of battery capacity but no restrictions on full discharge could actually provide more power and a longer range!
They’re not quite there yet. Theoretical capacity hasn’t been reached in the lab, and even after that it will probably take a few years for enough nanotube-enhanced ultracapacitor to make their way to market, but this is extremely promising (not just for cars, but maybe also as a way to store clean energy from intermittent sources). Thank you MIT!
by Michael Graham Richard, Gatineau, Canada on 03. 5.08
What’s interesting about this article it was published in March of 2008 and mentioned that it will take a few more years for this technology to develop. But here we are in 2009 with our new carbon nanotube battery ready for market, we are currently going through ULC lab testing for North American and finalizing our master distributor. Our first shipment should be in May/June. For early investement opportunity in this new battery technology just click on the investment application at the information bar on this website for more detailed information.
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