Leading science journal Nature Communications has published an article on a “low-cost, highly energy-efficient” aluminum battery developed by an international research team led by National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) professor Chen Chia-chun (陳家俊), the university said yesterday.
Chen, a professor of chemistry, said that his team set out to search for an alternative to lithium-ion batteries widely used in mobile devices and electric cars, which he said have become expensive due to increasing demand.
It is a “clear trend” that companies have been seeking other materials to replace lithium when making batteries, he said.
As aluminum is the most ubiquitous element on the planet, an aluminum-ion battery would be remarkably cheaper than lithium-ion ones, he said, adding that the battery is paper-thin, flexible and therefore space-saving.
The aluminum-ion battery also has a longer lifespan, he said.
“Each aluminum atom releases three electrons during the same unit time one electron is released by a lithium atom, making them three times as efficient as lithium-ion batteries,” he said.
The aluminum-ion battery is also more stable than lithium-ion batteries, which are prone to catch fire, and safer than lead-acid batteries, which are toxic, he said.
“Aluminum oxidizes much more slowly than lithium, so even if the battery is cracked and the aluminum comes into contact with oxygen and water, it is less likely to catch fire,” he said.
The battery was jointly developed by Chen, former NTNU assistant professor of chemistry Wang Diyan (王迪彥), Stanford University professor of chemistry Hongjie Dai and National Taiwan University of Science and Technology professor of chemical engineering Hwang Bing Joe (黃炳照) using funds allocated for the Ministry of Education’s “Race to Top Universities” initiative.
The battery has enough output to power mobile devices and, theoretically, electric cars, Chen said.
The team has established a company in San Francisco near the Silicon Valley in a bid to identify niche markets for the product.
The research was published in the Feb. 13 edition of Nature Communications.
A recently discovered supernova is the brightest and closest to Earth identified in the past decade, and can be observed with basic equipment, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said on Wednesday. The supernova has an absolute magnitude of 14.9 in luminosity and is in the Pinwheel Galaxy (M101) about 21 million light-years from Earth. It was discovered early on May 20 by Japanese amateur astronomer Koichi Itagaki, who immediately reported the finding to the International Astronomical Union, the museum said. The supernova was designated SN 2023ixf following the astronomical naming conventions for supernovas, it added. The museum said that it observed
Tropical storm Guchol is moving in a northeasterly direction off the east coast of the Philippines and will not hit Taiwan, but will impact local weather starting on Friday, the Central Weather Bureau said Thursday. The storm would bring a low-pressure system northward toward the vicinity of Taiwan, forecaster Chao Hung (趙竑) said. Northern Taiwan will see intermittent rain showers in the morning, and thunderstorms in the afternoon on Friday, he said, adding that rain would be heavier on the east coast and in the central-southern mountainous areas. Rainfall would continue into Saturday, and would spread throughout Taiwan proper, he
Exiled Chinese democracy advocate Wang Dan (王丹) yesterday denied an accusation by former Taiwanese political worker Lee Yuan-chun (李援軍) that Wang had sexually harassed him in a hotel room in New York nine years ago. There was a huge gap between Lee’s accusation and his own understanding and memory, Wang wrote on Facebook, adding it was hard for him to respond further regarding a “unilateral description” made by someone else. Wang made the remarks after his initial response on Facebook was met with criticism, with people saying he did not directly address the allegation. Lee on Friday wrote on Facebook that he
A man was arrested in Hsinchu on Saturday on suspicion of filming women in the women’s washroom of a shopping mall in the city, local Chinese-language media reported on Thursday. The man was arrested at around noon on Saturday when a woman using a stall in the mall’s washroom noticed a cellphone being held above her from the neighboring stall, reports said. The woman ran out of the washroom and yelled to her husband to help her, after which the suspect – who was dressed as a woman – attempted to flee, but was subdued by other men until police
RSS