CATL Lithium Air Battery Research and Laboratory Success Aims to Enable 1000 Mile Electric Vehicle Range by Utilizing Atmospheric Oxygen Chemistry
There is a possible chemical revolution on the way for the global electric vehicle market with battery producer CATL focusing its research and development into the chemistry of lithium air technology. Commercial use of these batteries could mean that electric vehicles could potentially travel over 1000 miles without the need for a recharge. The aim of this technology would be to solve the problem of range anxiety in the market by providing energy capacities similar to those provided by fossil fuels.
Current lithium ion cells require the presence of heavy internal transition metals for the transfer of energy to take place whereas lithium air uses oxygen from the air. Because the cell uses ambient air the cell does not require internal chemical reservoirs to be present, which means that a significant decrease in overall weight is observed for the power cell. This will improve efficiency and also how the electric vehicle performs and handles.
Energy density statistics are where the potential disruption occurs. Currently the leading lithium ion cells within the mass market provide around 270 Wh/kg and solid state batteries are anticipated to be somewhere around 500 Wh/kg but a lithium air battery has the potential to be around 12000 Wh/kg. This is about the energy density of petrol so that a vehicle would potentially be capable of going that distance.
CATL has shown experimental energy densities of over 1200 Wh/kg in a laboratory environment, over 4 times what current electric vehicles have on the market today. However due to engineering problems and a high sensitivity to moisture and carbon dioxide from the air the cell deteriorates extremely quickly. Systems need to be put in place to control and clean what is coming into the cell for it to be applicable on the open market.
