Battery components can take the heat: Rice Univers

Battery components can take the heat: Rice University team creates robust 'white graphene' electrolyte and separator for lithium-ion batteries

The Rice team led by materials scientist Pulickel Ajayan said batteries made with the composite functioned perfectly in temperatures of 150 degrees Celsius (302 degrees Fahrenheit) for more than a month with negligible loss of efficiency. Test batteries consistently operated from room temperature to 150 C, setting one of the widest temperature ranges ever reported for such devices, the researchers said.

"We tested our composite against benchmark electrodes and found that the batteries were stable for more than 600 cycles of charge and discharge at high temperatures," said lead author Marco-Túlio Rodrigues, a Rice graduate student.

The results were reported in Advanced Energy Materials.

Last year members of a Rice and Wayne State University team introduced an electrolyte made primarily of common bentonite clay that operated at 120 C. This year the team validated its hunch that h-BN would serve the purpose even better.....

http://www.nanotech-now.com/news.cgi?story_id=53296