When it comes to figuring out why electric aircraft batteries lose power over time, one typically wouldn’t think to turn to a decades-old approach biologists use to study the structure and function of components in living organisms.
When it comes to figuring out why electric aircraft batteries lose power over time, one typically wouldn’t think to turn to a decades-old approach biologists use to study the structure and function of components in living organisms. However, it turns out that omics, a field that helped scientists unravel the secrets of the human genome, could also soon play a key role in making carbon-free air travel a reality.
In a new study in the journal Joule, a team of researchers led by the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) used omics techniques to study the intricate interactions within the anode, cathode, and electrolyte of electric aircraft batteries. One of the most significant findings was the discovery that certain salts mixed into the battery electrolyte formed a protective coating on cathode particles, making them far more resistant to corrosion, thereby enhancing battery life.
The research team, which includes scientists from the University of California, Berkeley, University of Michigan, and industry partners ABA (Palo Alto, CA) and 24M (Cambridge, MA), then designed and tested an electric aircraft battery using their new electrolyte solution. The battery showed a four-fold increase when compared to conventional batteries in the number of cycles over which it could maintain the power-to-energy ratio needed for electric airflight. The next step in the project will be for the team to make enough batteries (approximately 100 kWh total capacity) for a projected 2025 test flight.
Read more at: Berkeley Lab
Brett Helms, senior staff scientist at the Molecular Foundry, with Youngmin Ko, a postdoctoral researcher, who is holding a coin cell battery used in this research. (Photo Credit: Jeremy Demarteau/Berkeley Lab)
