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Summary:
• Lithium-ion batteries often lose power in the cold and become unstable in heat.
• Penn State researchers developed a new battery design for reliable performance across extreme temperatures.
• The design uses special materials and an internal heater to keep batteries working safely and efficiently.
Lithium-ion batteries are everywhere—from phones and laptops to electric cars and even large power grids. But while these batteries are popular, they have a big weakness: they don’t work well in extreme temperatures. In very cold weather, they lose power and can’t deliver full energy. In very hot conditions, they can become unstable and even dangerous.
A team of researchers at Penn State University has come up with a new battery design that could solve this problem. Their goal was to create a battery that works reliably in both freezing cold and scorching heat, making it useful for more types of devices and places.
Why Temperature Matters for Batteries: Most lithium-ion batteries were originally designed for small electronics used indoors, where temperatures stay around 25 degrees Celsius (about 77 degrees Fahrenheit). But today, these batteries are used in electric vehicles, data centers, and even satellites—places where temperatures can swing from very cold to very hot.
To keep batteries working in these conditions, companies often use bulky systems to heat or cool them. These systems use a lot of energy and need regular maintenance. Even then, batteries still struggle in extreme temperatures, limiting their use in places like deserts or outer space.
A Smarter Solution-The All-Climate Battery: The Penn State team focused on a special type of lithium-ion battery called the all-climate battery (ACB). Previous versions of the ACB tried to improve performance in both hot and cold conditions by changing the battery materials. But this approach always involved a tradeoff—making the battery better in the cold often made it worse in the heat, and vice versa.
The new design takes a different approach. Instead of only changing the materials, the researchers added a heating element inside the battery itself.
Here’s how it works:
-The materials inside the battery are chosen to handle high temperatures safely and efficiently.
– When the battery is used in cold conditions, the internal heater gently warms it up, helping it deliver power even in freezing weather.
– This combination means the battery can work well in both hot and cold environments without sacrificing safety or performance.
Why This Matters: This new battery design could make lithium-ion batteries much more reliable for electric vehicles, renewable energy storage, and other technologies that need to work in all kinds of weather. It could also reduce the need for heavy and expensive heating or cooling systems, making these technologies cheaper and easier to maintain.
By solving the temperature problem, the Penn State team’s approach could help batteries power more parts of our world—from solar farms in deserts to satellites in space. This research was published in Joule.
The study was led by Chao-Yang Wang, professor of mechanical engineering and chemical engineering at Penn State, along with his research team.
