Potassium Metal Battery Is Becoming Competitor of Lithium-ion Battery
Humanity depends on potassium metal battery, from cell phones, solar energy, to electric cars. As the demand for safe, efficient, and powerful energy storage grows, so does the promise of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, which are the dominant technology in this space.
In research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have shown how they can overcome the persistent challenge known as dendrites to produce metal batteries and lithium-ion batteries, but they depend on potassium. A more abundant and less expensive component.
The potassium metal battery consists of two electrodes: a cathode at one end and an anode at the other. If you look at the lithium-ion battery, you will usually find a cathode made of cobalt lithium oxide and an anode made of graphite. During charging and discharge, lithium ions flow from one side to another between these two electrodes.
In this configuration, the researchers simply reduced the yield of lithium cobalt oxide instead of potassium cobalt oxide. Potassium is a large and heavy ingredient and, therefore, low energy. Instead, Rensselaer’s team considered replacing the graphite anode with potassium metal to increase potassium efficiency.
While potassium metal battery is very promising, they have traditionally suffered the accumulation of metal deposits in the anode, called dendrites. The uniform deposition of metallic potassium causes dendrites as the battery undergoes repeated cycles of charge and discharge. Over time, Koratkar explained, potassium metal groups become long and almost branched.
If they grow too much, they eventually intersect with the insulating membrane separator, which is intended to prevent the electrodes from touching each other and reducing the battery. Heat is generated when the battery is in the meshes and the device has the ability to turn on the organic electrolyte.
In this document, Koratkar and his team, which includes the Ph.D. student of Rensselaer Pritik Hundekar and a researcher at the University of Maryland, along with the Professor of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, Chunsheng Wang, explain how to solve that problem. For practical consumer use. Because the battery operates at a relatively high charge and discharge rate, it can increase the temperature inside the battery in a controlled manner and encourage dendrites to heal away from the anode.
After the storm ended, Koratkar made his own treatment for what happened to the iceberg. Winds and suns can eventually reduce the size of ice piles and reduce their size.
In this way, increasing the temperature in the potassium metal battery will not melt potassium, but will also help to activate the diffusion of the surface so that the potassium atoms move along the “block” that effectively creates and softens the dendrite.