Titre : Lithium Batteries: Current State and Beyond.
La conférence sera prononcée par le Dr. Ilias Belharouak de la Division des sciences chimiques et de génie au Argonne National Laboratory. Elle sera donnée en anglais.
Résumé : Rechargeable lithium‐ion batteries were first commercialized by Sony in early 90’s. The high cost of cobalt and relatively low specific capacity of LiCoO2 (140 Ah/kg) have been major obstacles against the application of these batteries in transportation where the battery energy density should significantly increase to meet the goals for plug‐in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs), and essentially for electric vehicles (EVs). Also, despite the abundance of iron and manganese, olivine LiFePO4 and spinel LiMn2O4 will not likely be adequate candidates since neither of them can provide enough gravimetric and volumetric energy densities for transportation applications. Therefore, research groups have been under the challenge of inventing and developing new advanced positive electrode materials whose main characteristics is to store more and more electricity per mass and volume. Of these materials, advanced composite materials were found to deliver a high reversible capacity (250 Ah/kg) while being structurally and electrochemically stable upon charge and discharge. These thermally stable materials are considered as potential candidates to surmount the energy density shortfall of current lithium ion batteries. The journey for materials design and discovery will be unveiled in the light of the most recent developments in lithium‐ion batteries. Also, the implementation of the very challenging lithium‐sulfur will be discussed.
