Or is it?
The Journal of the American Chemical Society reports the development of a new lithium ion (Li-ion) battery that can store large amounts of energy in a small package with high rate capacity. Which means this could be a great battery for future electric vehicles (EVs). With funding from the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation Bruno Scrosati and Yang-Kook Sun developed a high capacity nanostructured tin-carbon anode paired with a high voltage lithium ion cathode. The end result is a high capacity, high energy density battery. The techically advanced among you can read more in the paper on the development of the technology here.
Earlier this year we reported on the development of nano technology and how it could pertain to the development of a lithium-ion battery. One of the greatest benefits of the technology would be a potentially faster charge time. This idea could go a long way toward making the EV a more mainstream alternative than the current charge parameters.
We try to carefully read source material, and the reason for the questioning sub-head in our article is this comment from the conclusion of the aforementioned paper – To our knowledge, a lithium ion battery having this unique electrode combination has so far never been reported. What that says to us is that no one else has reported the development of similar technology. It does not mean that it does not already exist somewhere, and that it just hasn’t been reported. We feel that it is highly likely that Nissan – or Tesla, or General Motors – is not likely to publish the results of their battery development for all the world to see. However if this is in fact a new technological development, we feel that it can only move EV adoption further into the mainstream as this new technology ultimately provides advantages that equate to greater range for the EV driver.