Lithium-Ion Batteries Aren\'t Good Enough for Electric Flight. But Maybe Lithium-Metal Is.

It\'s easy to get tired of new battery news from popular MechanicsIt.
Scientists use a variety of exotic materials to repair chemical formulas, just to make the study fade out of the dusty history of academia.
But the breakthrough is different.
Scientists at Cuberg have crafted a new battery that can be amplified in the real world.
Backed by Boeing, venture capitalists and the United States, the startupS.
Doe shows the world\'s first vertical drone powered by lithium metal batteries (not to be confused with lithium)ion.
) The quadcopter is 70% longer than the flight time driven by Lithiumion battery.
The key invention is a new one.
Flammable electrolyte eliminates the safety risk associated with lithium that is prevalent todayion batteries.
\"Because it is very strong and stable in chemistry, it allows us to use materials with higher energy density inside the battery to reduce a lot of excess weight in the battery, said Richard Wang, CEO of cuberg.
\"From the typical graphite you find in lithium, the material changes
Ion on pure lithium metal foil.
Boeing believes that ultra-light-weight batteries are an important part of cutting
Edge aerospace projects including electric aircraft, flying taxis and large military cargo drones.
\"If you look at anything flying, lithium-
\"The ion battery is not good enough,\" Wang said . \".
\"When you start thinking about more ambitious plans, like Uber Elevate and more future electric aircraft, or hybrid aircraft, lithium-
Ion will not be cut.
It\'s just too heavy;
There is no point in performance and economy.
\"Safety is naturally a key part of any aircraft, especially manned aircraft, so it is obviously desirable to replace flammable materials. Li-
Ion batteries are notorious for their combustion, and when overheating causes flammable electrolyte to discharge gas that reacts with the cathode, it can cause runaway heating, fire and explosion.
\"The new electrolyte is thermal stable, so even if all the other materials in it have a high energy density and overheat, Wang said:\" If your electrolyte is stable, it will greatly mitigate the extent to which this happens. \".
By killing Hot runways in the bud, the batteries have a high power density and are safer, Boeing said.
Perhaps the biggest advantage is that the process does not require a major transformation to bring it to the factory so that technology can be realized in logistics.
\"People in the battery industry say everything in the past was done in some form, usually by some government scientists at the National Laboratory in their sixties,\" Wang said . \".
\"The same is true of our systems, but historically no one knows how to use these chemical systems effectively.
There has always been the challenge of purity, cost and basic physical challenges. ”The lithium-
The ion battery boom has created a complete supply chain, and now it uses some of the same precursor chemicals used in Boeing batteries, making production scale easier to reach industrial levels.
\"When you see the battery world, there will be a lot of breakthroughs,\" Wang said . \"
\"But to make things really impact, you have to go beyond the few steps of a breakthrough in basic materials and find something that works on many other levels, both economically and commercially.
Boeing called these new batteries a \"fundamental leap\" in battery technology \".
If they\'re right, the quadcopter flight could be the trailblazer for the upcoming drone and passenger aircraft flooding, and they go to lithium-
Ions just don\'t work.
A logical place to look for this battery is Boeing\'s military cargo drone, a 15-foot-
The first flight last year was eight wide.
After that, if the system is familiar enough to qualify for use in a spaceship, the sky is not necessarily the limit.
But you\'re unlikely to see these batteries being used for grid storage, where it\'s more important to extend the battery\'s cycle life (the time it takes to charge and discharge) than to lose weight.
But for those who dream of a future electric taxi, there is a better battery than Li
This is a welcome development.