Good news! Two research results of flexible color-changing battery and high energy density lithium battery have achieved breakthroughs

Internationally, the technical levels of various research and development teams in the field of batteries have been improving, and reports on research results are coming in succession. Just on the 14th, relevant media announced two research results obtained by my country in the field of batteries, which are of great significance.

The first achievement is the research on new flexible color-changing batteries by Professor He Gang's research group at Xi'an Jiaotong University. Recently, the research results were published in the internationally authoritative journal "Angewandte Chemie" in the form of a paper. Media reporters learned from Xi'an Jiaotong University that Professor He Gang's research group at the Frontier Science and Technology Research Institute of the university successfully prepared violaceous polymers containing sulfur elements and applied them as electrode materials to organic free radical lithium-ion batteries .

Viologen compounds are cationic organic molecules with excellent redox properties. Under applied voltage or light conditions, they can undergo a two-step reversible single-electron redox reaction to generate free radical cation states and neutral molecular states, accompanied by obvious color changes. Their unique redox properties make them widely used in the field of energy storage materials, such as inorganic/organic lithium/sodium/magnesium ion batteries, aqueous organic flow batteries, organic free radical batteries, and lithium-oxygen batteries.

Applying viologens containing sulfur elements to organic free radical lithium-ion batteries can not only greatly improve the performance of free radical batteries, but also combine the color-changing properties of such molecules with battery performance to develop new organic color-changing batteries. Although viologens have the advantages of not containing rare metals, adjustable redox properties, and flexible design at the molecular level, organic free radical batteries, as an emerging type of energy storage device, still have defects such as few redox states, low capacity, and poor stability, which greatly limit their application, and this problem needs to be solved by subsequent research. In any case, this research work not only developed a new type of organic free radical battery, but also provided new ideas for the research in the field of color-changing batteries.

The second research result is the great breakthrough achieved by Professor Chen Hao of China University of Mining and Technology and his team in the field of lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles . The "Key Technologies and Applications of New Power Systems for Electric Vehicles" studied by the team broke through the technical bottleneck of electric vehicle power systems and won the first prize of the provincial science and technology progress.

Electric vehicles are hailed as the future of clean energy transportation. They have always been committed to narrowing the most obvious gap compared to fuel vehicles - endurance, and the energy density of power batteries has become the core of various research and development teams.

Professor Chen Hao introduced that in order to lead the trend of rare earth-free drive motors and high nickel and low cobalt development of ternary lithium-ion batteries, the research group has carried out key technology research on new electric vehicle power systems based on rare earth-free switched reluctance motor drive systems and ternary high nickel lithium-ion power batteries, and has achieved a series of innovative results:

Invented a method for smoothing the output torque of an electric vehicle switched reluctance drive motor;

Proposed design indicators for switched reluctance motor drive systems for electric vehicles, participated in the formulation and promulgation of national standards for stator winding insulation applicable to switched reluctance drive motors;

A new method for preparing high-energy-density lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles has been invented. The specific energy of the ternary nickel-lithium-ion battery is greater than 230Wh/kg, and the capacity retention rate reaches more than 95%...

High energy density power lithium-ion battery

Professor Chen Hao said, "For electric vehicles to be popularized and put into the homes of ordinary people, sales costs and operating costs are very important." The battery developed by the research team can run at least 10% more mileage on a single charge, and the motor life can be extended by at least 30%. At the same time, the cost is greatly reduced. Compared with rare earth motors, the cost of the same batch of motors can be reduced by more than 35%.

The research results of relevant Chinese teams in these two battery technologies are very outstanding. How far the batteries can go and how wide their coverage will be also depends on whether they can continue to make progress in science and technology.