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Researchers at Japan’s AIST have created the first Ni-Li battery that is supposed to have a 3.5 times higher energy storage capacity than a lithium-ion battery, while also being safer.

The researchers at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) have developed a prototype of a battery made of Nickel and Lithium that is supposed to combine the advantages of lithium while overcoming its drawbacks. The world’s first Ni-Li Battery can store 3.5 more energy than its promising brother the Li-ion battery, combining the high cell voltage of li-ion cells and the large cell capacity of Ni-MH cells.

“The amount of electrical energy E (Wh/kg) that a battery is able to deliver is a function of the cell voltage U (V) and capacity Q (Ah/kg), both of which are linked directly to the chemistry of the system,” the newly published paper of Huiqiao Li, one of AIST’s involved researchers, reads.

Prolonging EV’s range with ultrahigh energy batteries

Resulting in an ultrahigh energy density the new battery technology could solve range anxiety problems related to an electric vehicle. A standard Li-ion battery today has an energy density of around 55 watt-hours per pound of battery material. The AIST researchers’ prototype has already obtained a “practical energy density” of about 194 watt-hours per pound of battery. Translated into the range of an electric vehicle it means that instead of only 100 kilometres one can drive around 350 kilometres.

The technology behind

Li and his colleagues placed a nickel hydroxide cathode in a liquid electrolyte and the lithium metal anode in an organic electrolyte. By including a membrane made of a glass-ceramic film called LISICON, they managed to separate the two incompatible electrolytes allowing a much bigger variety of cathode and anode materials to create batteries that have a higher energy density and have a lower propensity to explode.

“In summary, we propose a rechargeable battery system by integrating two reversible electrode processes associated with an aqueous and a nonaqueous electrolyte, respectively. The prototype Ni-Li battery promised an ultrahigh theoretical energy density as well as a high power potential, which reinforced the view that it is an important avenue to fulfill the best-performing combination for an electrode/electrolyte/electrode system,” the researchers added.