06-25-2015, 02:26 AM
Aiming to completely overhaul the lithium-ion battery industry, MIT-based scientist Yet-Ming Chiang on Monday publicly unveiled his latest startup, called 24M. The company uses a novel battery composition based on a semi-solid material that eliminates much of the bulk of conventional lithium-ion batteries—which are typically made up mostly of inactive, non-energy-storing materials—while dramatically increasing the energy density. Chiang and 24M CEO Throop Wilder also say that they can reduce the time needed to make a battery by 80 percent and the cost by 30 to 50 percent.
Will This Be the Technology to Revolutionize Lithium Batteries? | MIT Technology Review
Last year, the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences demonstrated a flow battery concept in the laboratory that used organic quinone molecules as the basis for its electrolyte. It caused plenty of excitement. The most expensive component of flow systems is often the electrolyte. Many current and prototype systems use elements such as vanadium, which can be both expensive and difficult to source, so a widely available organic alternative has the potential to dramatically reduce costs for flow technology.
Harvard’s Organic Flow Battery Under Development in Europe : Greentech Media
The materials in most of today's residential rooftop solar panels can store energy from the sun for only a few microseconds at a time. A new technology developed by chemists at UCLA is capable of storing solar energy for up to several weeks—an advance that could change the way scientists think about designing solar cells.
Chemists devise technology that could transform solar energy storage