We have used lithium ion batteries for decades. Now we know more about how they work

In science, there is an amazing long list of things that we still have not fully tolerated yet but we still use it because it works. This was an unexpected case for lithium-ion batteries-an energy source for electric cars and various mobile electronics-where scientists knew what the mechanism is but it was not completely sure how it works.

Fortunately, the Massachusetts Institute scientists found the answer. to sciences A paper posted on October 2, researchers describe a model showing how to transfer the electron ion (CIET), a process in which the electron is transmitted to the electrode using Ion, in this case Li -Li -Li -ion, may explain the source of lifestyle lithium ion battery. The “insight” can design the design of Li -Ion batteries is more powerful and faster, “according to researchers.

A series of molecules

The typical lithium -ion battery operates through a chemical mechanism called interculation. Basically, during the drainage of the battery, lithium ions were dissolved in an electrical solution to insert itself into a solid pole. When the “De-Intercalate” ions and return to the electricity are electric, the battery is charged.

The paper explained that the intersection rate governs everything from a clear power of the battery to the speed of charging – and the reason that researchers found that it is necessary to better understand the basic mechanisms.

Previously, scientists believed that lithium in an electric electrode was driven by a model that describes the extent of the spread of lithium ions between the electricity and electricity. However, actual experiments did not match this model, indicating researchers that there may be another option.

Travel pair

For the new study, researchers prepared more than 50 groups of electrolytes and electrodes to correct things once and for all. Like previous experiences, they found significant contradictions between actual and model data. So instead, the team has reached several alternatives that can explain what they see.

Finally, they decided on a model dependent on the assumption that lithium ion can only enter an electrode if he travels with an electron from an electric solution-a transmission of an ion electron. The researchers explained that this electrochemical conjugation makes it easy to occur, and mathematics behind CIET is well suitable for data.

“The electrochemical step is not the introduction of lithium, which you may think is the main thing, but it is actually a electron to reduce the solid material that hosts lithium,” said Martin Bazant, a co -author of the study and mathematics scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said. News of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “Lithium is overlapping at the same time that the electron is transferred, and each other is easy.”

Not only that, the researchers also discovered that the alteration of the electrolyte composition affects the exchange rates. They explained that follow -up investigations can reveal more efficient ways to create stronger and faster batteries.

“What we hope will be enabled through this work is to obtain reactions to be faster and more controlled, which can accelerate charging and unloading,” said Bazant.