According to Japanese media reports, technologies that use sulfur in the electrodes of lithium-ion batteries to increase the battery capacity to four to five times have been developed. If this technology can be applied to lithium-ion batteries, it will be expected to significantly reduce the frequency of charging portable terminals such as smartphones. The plan is to join hands with battery companies, and strive to be practical after 3 to 5 years.
Lithium batteries are made of lithium ions that move back and forth between positive and negative electrodes through an electrolyte to achieve repeated charge and discharge. Positive electrodes include lithium cobalt oxide including rare metals. Sulfur has a characteristic of storing a large amount of electric power and is suitable for serving as an electrode material. At the same time, it is not a rare resource. Sulfur is processed into micro-particles, and studies for positive electrodes based on increasing the surface area are progressing.
In addition, Professor Ishikawa Masaki of Kansai University in Japan has also developed a technique for infiltrating sulfur microparticles into nanometer-diameter holes opened on carbon used in electrodes. Made of micro-particles easy to fix the uniform size of the hole, and efficient filling of sulfur into the hole. About 30% of the weight of the electrode made by this method is sulfur, and the battery capacity is 4 times that of the past.
Professor Ishikawa produced a positive electrode and conducted a battery test. Performance can be maintained even after repeated charging and discharging for hundreds of times. The time required for charging is shortened to one-twentieth of that of conventional lithium-ion batteries. In the future, the amount of sulphur infiltrating carbon will increase, and it will strive to be practical after 5 years.
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