Researchers develop improved EV battery capacity

A team of researchers has developed a composite that improves the capacity and charging speed of silicon-based EV batteries

Spotted: A team of researchers at the Center for Energy Storage Research of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) have developed a way to increase electric vehicle battery capacity and enable rapid battery charging, to more than 80 per cent capacity in only five minutes.

Most batteries currently used in mass-produced EVs use graphite anodes, but these have relatively low storage capacity. Silicon anodes have a much greater energy storage capacity, but this decreases during charge and discharge cycles as the silicon expand, making them less useful in commercial vehicles. 

In order to increase the stability of silicon anodes, the KIST team developed a carbon-silicon composite by dissolving starch and silicon in water and oil respectively, then mixing them together and “cooking” them. The resulting composite had a storage capacity four-times greater than graphite anodes and was stable over 500 charging cycles. Because of carbon’s high conductivity, its addition also allowed the batteries to charge more quickly.

The growth of EV vehicles is an important part of the reduction of carbon levels. One crucial component in this is to make EV vehicles more efficient. At Springwise, we have seen a number of innovations aimed at improving the sustainability of EV, from boats that reuse old EV batteries to technology for battery regeneration.

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