Scientists have developed a synthetic substance capable of revolutionizing the electric car industry. The new substance manages to make lithium-oxygen batteries generate autonomy similar to that of combustion engines

Australian researchers have discovered a new substance that could boost the arrival of lithium-oxygen batteries for electric cars. Such batteries stand out for being able to store much more energy than the lithium ions that currently exist, giving the same autonomy as combustion engines for electric ones. For this, they capture the oxygen present in the atmosphere generating reactions while unloading, releasing the substance at the time of loading.

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lithium-oxygen batteries

Despite everything, the prototypes have shown some parasitic reactions, preventing the release of energy stored in batteries for electric cars, in addition to reducing their useful life.

Researchers at the University of Technology in Sydney have developed a synthetic molecule that solves these problems with lithium-oxygen batteries, which are capable of providing autonomy from cars with combustion engines to electric cars.

With the molecule, a life cycle of over 1.400 cycles, in addition to a difference of only 0,7 V between the release voltage and the recharge voltage. The substance created by the team of scientists for lithium-oxygen batteries actually alters the essential mechanism for the functioning of the component.

Understand how scientists developed a battery capable of matching cars with combustion engines

According to the team of scientists, a multinational superoxide radical scavenger was designed and synthesized by grafting onto an active quenching perylene diimide (PDI) skeleton two active mediating redox groups.

The result, which has a long name but can be referred to by the acronym PDI-TEMPO, not only eliminates the superoxide species created during the charging and discharging process of lithium-oxygen batteries, but also acts as a regulator to catalyze decomposition. and formation of Li2O2 in the electrolyte solution and reduction of potential differences between charge and discharge.

The capacity of the next generation of lithium-oxygen batteries for electric cars should extend the autonomy between charges, being able to compare with combustion engines, being a huge leap for the global automotive industry. The researchers and the team's coordinating professor, Guoxiu Wang, are confident that their molecule can dramatically improve the performance of components, allowing new-generation lithium-oxygen batteries to be more practical.

Brazil is also advancing with the use of new battery technologies for electric cars

Brazilian researchers advance in the development of precise catalysts for optimizing lithium-oxygen batteries. According to Gustavo Doubek, a professor at Unicamp, the work helps build batteries for electric cars that can surpass combustion engines, improving cycle efficiency, without using noble or expensive materials.

For the component to offer a good performance, it is necessary that all lithium peroxide generated decomposes quickly. Therefore, researchers around the world have worked on creating catalysts capable of offering the decomposition of lithium peroxide and, at the same time, having a low cost, excellent durability and good performance.