Janus Graphene: Newly Discovered Technology May Change The Electric Car Industry By Creating High-Capacity Sodium Batteries

Written by Paulo Nogueira

Published on 12/01/2022 at 15:33

Updated on 12/01/2022 at 17:44

Seja o primeiro a reagir!

The New Graphene, Created at Chalmers University, Has Been Named Janus Graphene and May Change the Electric Car Industry

Graphene is a fundamental part of new technologies, being used as an anode in lithium-ion batteries. These are the batteries for electric cars, highly desired for their high charge capacity. There is a central problem with this technology at the moment: lithium is a rare, expensive metal, causing a series of political difficulties. The price of lithium drives up the average cost of electric vehicles, weakening the initiatives for mass adoption of electric cars.

Fortunately, research from the University of Chalmers, in association with research centers in Europe, is coming to change this by allowing for cheaper high-capacity batteries. According to what has been announced, they developed a modification in the organization of graphene, enabling sodium to function as efficiently as lithium.

If this possibility is confirmed, this new graphene will change the battery and electric car market forever.

ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW

What Makes This New Component Special?

The new form of graphene, named Janus Graphene (after the Roman god of two faces, associated with doors and new beginnings), solves a problem with one of the cheapest batteries to produce: sodium-ion batteries.

Current battery technology involves the intercalation of lithium ions with a layer of graphene, allowing lithium ions to be stored in a manner that can be converted into energy at the right moment.

However, sodium ions, being larger, cannot flow as easily through traditional graphene anodes, which led to a loss of energy storage capacity in sodium batteries.

What researchers at the University of Chalmers did was create a molecular spacer in graphene, allowing for more space so that sodium ions could behave similarly to lithium ions.

To get an idea of the difference this new graphene offers to current batteries, with normal graphene, it is possible to maintain a total of 35 milliampere-hours/gram (mA/h/g-1), which is ten times less efficient than lithium batteries.

With the new graphene, the capacity rises to 332 milliampere-hours/gram (mA/h/g-1), which is considerably closer to lithium batteries.

Janus Graphene and Its Possible Impact on Electric Cars

The great advantage of this new component is its ability to completely change the electric car market.

One of the main barriers to greater acceptance of electric cars in all global markets has been the issue of price, and one of the most expensive components of an electric car at the moment is its batteries, which have their prices inflated by the need for lithium for high-capacity batteries.

In conclusion, with cheaper batteries, electric cars become more affordable, potentially outperforming internal combustion vehicles in cost-benefit, allowing for a faster transition.

Furthermore, with cheaper high-capacity batteries, it will be possible to sell electrification kits for vehicles, making current cars at least hybrids, and allowing electric cars to become a much more common reality.

This, however, is still far from realization. As this study was just recently published, there is still a long way to go before Janus Graphene leaves the labs and starts circulating on the streets.

Will this be the technology that dominates the battery market? New possibilities for electric cars are being discovered every day, and you can learn about all of them here at CPG.

Janus Graphene: Newly Discovered Technology May Change The Electric Car Industry By Creating High-Capacity Sodium Batteries

The New Graphene, Created at Chalmers University, Has Been Named Janus Graphene and May Change the Electric Car Industry

What Makes This New Component Special?

Janus Graphene and Its Possible Impact on Electric Cars

Seen from space, an image taken by an astronaut shows an unlikely oasis in the Saudi Arabian desert, protected by a terrain that slows the advance of sand, surrounded by green circles, remnants of an extinct lake and nearly 10,000 years of preserved history.

While the U.S. still faces limitations in deep space, China is developing unprecedented technology with strategic satellites that maintain communication with the far side of the Moon and aims for dominance by 2030.

In Botswana, a salt flat of up to 16,000 km² that was once an African megalake spends months as an absolute white desert, but during the rainy season it transforms into a shallow sea that reappears from nowhere and can be seen from space in the middle of southern Africa.

The Blood Falls of Antarctica hide a living ecosystem trapped under the ice for over 2 million years, where microbes survive without light, without oxygen, and without ever having seen the Sun.

Bavarian archaeologists unearthed a medieval skeleton that had an articulated iron hand in place of its left arm, and the discovery reveals that doctors were already creating sophisticated prosthetics over 500 years ago.

The CEO of Honor in Spain says that smartphones will change with AI, foldables, and even robot phones; the component crisis is making cheap models more expensive in 2026 and shifting the focus to premium.

Before mining the ocean floor, scientists found 24 unknown creatures at 4,000 meters — including an entire superfamily that science had never seen before.

In the asteroid belt, an “impossible comet” is releasing water vapor where it shouldn’t exist, and the James Webb telescope has revealed that primordial ice has survived for billions of years in a region that could rewrite the origin of water on Earth.

Mercedes has created an electric motor with over 1,000 horsepower that weighs only 12.7 kilograms — less than a suitcase and with the highest power density ever recorded.

At over 8 meters tall and resembling a trunk, this creature dominated the Earth 400 million years before the dinosaurs — and science still doesn’t know what it was.

China inaugurates a 24 km monster that is a bridge, tunnel, and museum at the same time — and 90,000 cars pass through it every day.

Janus Graphene: Newly Discovered Technology May Change The Electric Car Industry By Creating High-Capacity Sodium Batteries

The New Graphene, Created at Chalmers University, Has Been Named Janus Graphene and May Change the Electric Car Industry

What Makes This New Component Special?

Janus Graphene and Its Possible Impact on Electric Cars

Seen from space, an image taken by an astronaut shows an unlikely oasis in the Saudi Arabian desert, protected by a terrain that slows the advance of sand, surrounded by green circles, remnants of an extinct lake and nearly 10,000 years of preserved history.

While the U.S. still faces limitations in deep space, China is developing unprecedented technology with strategic satellites that maintain communication with the far side of the Moon and aims for dominance by 2030.

In Botswana, a salt flat of up to 16,000 km² that was once an African megalake spends months as an absolute white desert, but during the rainy season it transforms into a shallow sea that reappears from nowhere and can be seen from space in the middle of southern Africa.

The Blood Falls of Antarctica hide a living ecosystem trapped under the ice for over 2 million years, where microbes survive without light, without oxygen, and without ever having seen the Sun.

Bavarian archaeologists unearthed a medieval skeleton that had an articulated iron hand in place of its left arm, and the discovery reveals that doctors were already creating sophisticated prosthetics over 500 years ago.

The CEO of Honor in Spain says that smartphones will change with AI, foldables, and even robot phones; the component crisis is making cheap models more expensive in 2026 and shifting the focus to premium.

Mercedes has created an electric motor with over 1,000 horsepower that weighs only 12.7 kilograms — less than a suitcase and with the highest power density ever recorded.

4 used Volkswagen cars starting at R$ 50,000 with good cost-benefit.

BYD has lowered the price of the Song Pro for PcD, and now the plug-in hybrid SUV with a range of 1,100 km costs less than the Toyota Corolla Cross.

Xiaomi’s electric sedan traveled 4,264 kilometers in 24 hours non-stop on a track in China and set the world record for endurance for mass-produced electric cars.

With over 3,000 horsepower and 472 km/h in Germany, the Chinese electric supercar from BYD has become the fastest electric car in the world, surpassing the Rimac Nevera by 60 km/h.

Before mining the ocean floor, scientists found 24 unknown creatures at 4,000 meters — including an entire superfamily that science had never seen before.

In the asteroid belt, an “impossible comet” is releasing water vapor where it shouldn’t exist, and the James Webb telescope has revealed that primordial ice has survived for billions of years in a region that could rewrite the origin of water on Earth.

Mercedes has created an electric motor with over 1,000 horsepower that weighs only 12.7 kilograms — less than a suitcase and with the highest power density ever recorded.

At over 8 meters tall and resembling a trunk, this creature dominated the Earth 400 million years before the dinosaurs — and science still doesn’t know what it was.

China inaugurates a 24 km monster that is a bridge, tunnel, and museum at the same time — and 90,000 cars pass through it every day.