Chapter 723 Lithium-Air Battery

Chapter 723 Lithium-Air Battery

A project that is more awesome than lithium-sulfur batteries!

Hearing this, Fan Pengyue's body shook, a trace of consternation flashed in his eyes, and his eyes widened.

For the Chuanhai Materials Research Institute, which started with artificial SEI films, the majority of the revenue is undoubtedly batteries.

And in the field of batteries, there is only one project that is more awesome than lithium-sulfur batteries.

That's the legendary black technology: "Lithium-air battery!" ”

Taking a deep breath, Master Xiong suppressed the shock in his heart, swallowed his saliva and asked, "Do you have a good grasp of the lithium air battery?" ”

The reason for this question is that the research related to lithium air is already being done by the Chuanhai Materials Research Institute itself, but the previous investment in research and development is very small, and it has not become the core project of the research institute like the lithium-sulfur battery.

After all, there is such a thing as lithium air, let alone them, that is, all the battery manufacturers and scientific research institutions in the world together have no breakthrough.

To this day, this thing is still a laboratory product with many flaws, even a theoretical product.

Lithium-air battery: A battery that uses lithium as the negative electrode and oxygen in the air as the positive electrode reactant.

It has a higher energy density than lithium-ion batteries, or even lithium-sulfur batteries. This is because the cathode (which is dominated by porous carbon) is light, and oxygen is obtained from the environment and is not stored in the battery.

Theoretically, since oxygen is not limited as a cathode reactant, the capacity of a lithium-air battery depends only on the lithium electrode, and its specific energy can reach 5.21 kWh/kg.

The traditional lithium battery is calculated by Wh/kg as the capacity, while the lithium-air battery is KWh/Kg, which is enough to see its incomparably superior performance from the change of units.

Therefore, the concept of lithium-air battery has been sought after all over the world since it was proposed.

However, after decades of research and development, although there are many directions, there is still no progress.

As for the samples that often break out in laboratories in various countries, it can be said that all of them have problems of one kind or another.

So when he heard Xu Chuan's words, Fan Pengyue was really shocked.

If they can also master lithium-air batteries, then in the current era, they can really say that they can directly master the future!

Because, electricity is the future!

Xu Chuan smiled and said, "I don't have much research on lithium-air batteries. ”

"Still."

After a pause, his eyes fell on the computer paper, and he said with a smile: "But the paper theory you read in your hand is enough to point it in a direction." ”

For lithium-air batteries, the core mechanism is actually very similar to the artificial SEI film in lithium-ion batteries.

In most cases, the effect of artificial SEI film is to prevent the further decomposition of solutes in the battery electrolyte by preventing the elements in the electrolyte from accumulating and penetrating, or by guiding the aggregation, so as to reduce the side reactions of the battery and the loss of the electrolyte.

In lithium-air batteries, the core mechanism lies in how to extract 'high-purity' oxygen from the air to supply it to the battery for reaction, and how to prevent chronic residual leakage of the electrolyte separator in the lithium battery.

At present, the mainstream research direction of lithium-air batteries in various countries is basically to create a layer of 'membrane material' similar to an artificial SEI film to isolate the electrolyte and air, and draw oxygen from the air to participate in the battery reaction.

And such a film undoubtedly has extremely high requirements for performance.

Whether it is to isolate the damage of water vapor, carbon dioxide, nitrogen and other gases in the air to the battery itself, or the low efficiency of power transfer, short service life, safety issues, etc., it is a great trouble.

The most important thing is that the most basic redox mechanism in the current lithium-air battery technology has not been clearly demonstrated.

Through this paper he made, combined with the experimental data of lithium-air batteries, there is great hope that the redox mechanism of lithium-air batteries can be completed.

With the mechanism, and then taking this as the core for research extension, the difficulty of lithium air battery technology research and development will be reduced by at least half!

This is one of the reasons why Xu Chuan chose electrochemistry as the breakthrough point for the theoretical reconstruction of the computational model of chemical materials from the beginning.

Because the reaction of lithium-air batteries is electrochemical, as long as they go through this routine, perhaps they are not very far away from lithium-air batteries, which are more advanced than lithium-sulfur batteries.

On the sofa, when he heard Xu Chuan say that the key to solving the lithium-air battery technology was in this paper, Fan Pengyue flipped through the laptop in his hand again and asked, "What should I do?" ”

Xu Chuan said with a smile: "It's very simple, first of all, the research institute and the network technology company will convert this paper into a mathematical model, and then collect experimental data related to electrochemistry and lithium batteries to fill in." ”

"After the quantum computational mathematical model of the electrochemical microscopic substantial reaction is established, the research on lithium-air batteries can be carried out."

Fan Pengyue nodded, took a breath and asked, "What about the direction?" Which route to take? ”

Unlike lithium-sulfur batteries, lithium-air batteries are currently at the forefront of battery research, and although they have been studied in various countries, they are limited by difficulty and do not occupy the real mainstream.

For lithium-air batteries, there are several research directions, including the development of a more stable electrolyte system, the study and improvement of cathode materials, the study of new anode materials for lithium-air batteries, and the improvement of battery safety and stability.

Each of these routes has achieved some success, but it is really not possible to say that any of them have an overwhelming advantage.

Some people may say, I can't study it all? The advantages of each route are extracted, and finally a direction and a study are formed.

Theoretically, this is possible, but the question is where does your research funding come from?

Research on one route is expensive, let alone if you study all of them at the same time.

And in addition to research funding, it is even more impractical to study all the directions at the same time.

Because there's so much to think about developing all the routes at the same time.

If the complexity of studying one route is '100', then the difficulty of studying all routes at the same time can soar to 10,000 or even higher.

Because you need to consider the combination of each material, the parameter coefficients between each reaction, and the conductivity, chemical stability, and lifetime of each material. The level of complexity has risen exponentially.

Hearing this question, Xu Chuan thought for a moment and said, "The direction route can ultimately be solved by handing over the results of experimental data and calculation models. ”

"However, compared with the electrolyte and other routes, I am personally more optimistic about the membrane route."

After a pause, he continued: "Of course, the key now is for the research institute to cooperate with the network technology company to make the mathematical model first. When the model is made, we can naturally analyze it through experimental data when we have enough data. ”

As he himself just said, he does not have much research on the research direction of lithium-air batteries, and he is not clear about the research direction of lithium-air batteries.

According to the trajectory of the previous life, there will be little progress in this technology until 2035. In addition, he has not entered this field much, and now the research in the field of lithium-air batteries can only go step by step.

Fortunately, Chuanhai Materials Research Institute has experienced these years of development and has a certain foundation in the field of lithium batteries.

Although this background is not as good as those of the established research institutes, it is not a problem to choose a suitable research direction in combination with the quantum theory of the microscopic solid reaction process of electrochemistry.

On the other side, the master Xiong Fan Pengyue frowned slightly, and said: "If this is the case, in the early experiments, we will conduct a large number of experiments on lithium battery research of different routes to obtain enough data to fill the model." ”

"In this way, the cost of funds is probably not a small number."

It is natural to use models to find directions, but this path is based on a large amount of experimental data analysis.

And every piece of experimental data needs to be obtained through experiments, and the experiment is not difficult, but the difficulty lies in the large amount of funds corresponding to a large number of experiments, and the key is funding.

Xu Chuan nodded and said, "I know this, although this is the stupidest way, it is also the safest way." ”

"As for the cost, if we can solve the problem of lithium-air batteries, it is worth investing more. You don't have to worry about this, I'll provide it. ”

For scientific research, funding is a must.

Nothing is more expensive than doing research, but there is nothing more lucrative than being successful in research.

Lithium-air batteries are an incomparably huge market, as long as they can take the lead in this, or even without monopoly, it is enough to recover the cost and bring a lot of benefits.

Fan Pengyue nodded, thought for a while, and then said, "Okay, I'll arrange this matter." Make preliminary preparations before the year, and you can officially start the relevant projects after the year. ”

"By the way, do you participate in the research and development of lithium-air batteries? Or is it according to the research and development of lithium-sulfur batteries? ”

Xu Chuan thought for a moment and replied, "It depends on the situation, if I have time at that time." ”

He has a lot of things in his hands, although the lithium-air battery is very optimistic, but calculating the time, the large strong particle collider under construction in Star City next year may be completed.

This is more important than that, and he doesn't really have the time to study lithium-air batteries.

After all, whether it is dark matter or graviton, it involves the progress and development of physics and even the entire civilization, and it is also a field that he is more interested in.

(End of chapter)