I found an article in my newspaper by the AP, datelined "Washington", written by Seth Borenstein, titled "Tinkering with lithium ion batteries" kind of interesting. It is a long piece that covers Li-ion batteries in general and is not terribly positive in its comments. A couple of things caught my attention:
Vince Battagglia, a battery scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab says: "We need to leapfrog the engineering of making batteries. We've got to find the next big thing."
None of the 10 experts who talked to the AP said they know what that big thing will be yet, or when it will come.
Carnegie Mellon University materials science professor, Jay Whitacre, says "If you crack it...it'll change the world". You can't get around the fundamental thing is that lithium ion batteries are stuffed full of flammable liquid."
The article says that the Obama administration has spent more than $2 billion to jump-start the advanced battery industry, including setting up what some experts say is a mini-Manhattan Project for batteries.
To make the next break-through, researchers will have to master complex chemistry, expensive manufacturing, detailed engineering, a variety of different materials, lengthy testing, stringent safety standards and giant cost problems. It involves dealing with liquids and solids, metals and organic chemicals, and things that are in between, said Glenn Amatucci, director of the Energy Storage Research Group at Rutgers University. Mr. Amatucci goes on to say: "We're dealing with a system that you can imagine is almost alive, It's almost breathing. Trying to understand what's happening within these batteries is incredibly complex".
M. Stanley Whittingham, director of the Northeast Center for Chemical Energy Storage says: "If you want high storage, you can't get high power. People are expecting more than what is possible".
Battery experts are split over what's next. Some think the lithium ion battery can be tinkered with to get major efieicncy and storage improvements. Amatucci said he thinks we can get two to three times more energy out of future lithium ion batteries, while others said minor chemical changes can do even more.
The man responsible for the 1979 breakthrough that led to the first commercial lithium ion battery in 1991. 90-year old John Goodenough (?) will receive the National Medal of Science at the White House next month
