It is expected to increase the driving range of electric vehicles by 70%. The multifunctional carbon fiber structure battery has been successfully developed

According to Science and Technology Daily, when cars, airplanes, ships or computers are made of a material that can serve as both a battery and a load-bearing structure, their weight and energy consumption will be greatly reduced. According to a paper published in the latest issue of Advanced Materials on the 10th, a research team at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden has made progress in the research of "massless energy storage" and developed a multifunctional carbon fiber structure battery. This battery can halve the weight of a laptop, make a mobile phone as thin as a credit card, or increase the range of an electric car on a single charge by 70%.

Chalmers University of Technology researcher Rika Chaudhry said the structural battery they developed is made of carbon fiber composites, which have the same stiffness as aluminum and sufficient energy density for commercial applications. Structural batteries are materials that can both store energy and carry loads. Making battery materials part of the actual structure of the product means that lower weight can be achieved on products such as electric vehicles, drones, handheld tools, laptops and mobile phones.

In 2018, the team demonstrated for the first time that carbon fibers with high rigidity and hardness can store electrical energy chemically as lithium-ion battery electrodes. This research attracted widespread attention and was named one of the top ten breakthroughs of the year by Physics World magazine.

Since then, the research team has further developed its concept, improving the battery stiffness and energy density, and in 2021, the battery's energy density has been raised to 24 watt-hours per kilogram (Wh/kg), which is about 20% of the capacity of similar lithium-ion batteries. This time, they have increased the energy density to 30Wh/kg. Although this is still lower than the current commonly used batteries, the effect is very different. When the battery becomes part of the structure and can be made of lightweight materials, the weight of the entire vehicle can be greatly reduced. In this way, the energy required for electric vehicles will be greatly reduced.

What's special about this battery is that it uses almost no traditional metal materials, such as copper and aluminum, so the entire vehicle will be lighter. It also doesn't rely on some rare and potentially controversial metals, such as cobalt and manganese. However, the downside of this battery is that it is not as efficient as traditional batteries in storing energy, resulting in lower output power.

The researchers calculated that electric vehicles could have a range up to 70 percent longer than today if equipped with the new structural battery. The stiffness of the structural battery cells has also been significantly improved, with the elastic modulus in GPa increasing from 25 to 70. This means the material can carry loads like aluminum, but is lighter.

The researchers say the new battery is twice as good as its predecessor in terms of versatility, making it the best battery in the world so far. However, a lot of engineering work is needed before battery cells can go from small-scale lab manufacturing to large-scale production and use in tech products or vehicles.