Theion sulphur crystal batteries promise breakthrough in energy density

Re:Theion sulphur crystal batteries promise breakthrough in ... by fpoling on Monday April 04, 2022 @05:49AM (#30904811)

The article mention about future trials in aerospace industry. So presumably the current is not a problem. But the number of recharging cycles can be the one. On the other hand if the new chemistry allows applications that were not possible before, quickly degrading but cheap batteries can be a useful option.

Edit: according to https://newatlas.com/energy/rare-form-sulfur-lithium-ion-bat... it is possible to address the degradation problem. So maybe this is not vaporware.

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Re:Theion sulphur crystal batteries promise breakthrough in ... by adrian_b on Monday April 04, 2022 @07:16AM (#30905280)

At your link about the research done at Drexel University there is much more information about the structure of the cathode and about the obtained results, so it is more credible than the parent article, but it also refers to a research that does not appear to be close to commercialization.

They have used a slightly different cathode structure, with carbon nanofibers instead of nanotubes, and with a different electrolyte.

So, as shown by other posters, during the last couple of months there have been at least 3 announcements, from 2 commercial startups and from an university, all claiming to have solved the reversibility problem of the cathode in lithium-sulfur batteries, using either carbon nanofibers, carbon nanotubes or boron-nitride nanotubes, and the 2 startups claim that in a year or so such batteries may become commercially available.

Having 3 such announcements instead of 1, makes it much more believable that at least 1 of them is not overly optimistic, so indeed the lithium-sulfur batteries might replace soon the lithium-cobalt and lithium-nickel batteries, making the batteries much more affordable.

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