A smartphone and a laptop deserve a battery that lasts. The smell of rotten eggs can help with that, is now the idea. A team of researchers discovered that sulfur can help extend battery life. When you combine that element with hydrogen, you’re left with the smell of rotten eggs. Bon appetit.
The team working on this is at Monash University in Australia. It developed a battery that runs on lithium and sulfur. This allows lithium to be moved quickly and improves battery life and performance. Let’s hope we don’t notice any of that with our noses.
Battery in smartphone can use all the help it can get
When you compare the new battery to the current versions, the sulfur batteries have a density five times higher. In other words, the range of a Tesla Model S would be stretched to 3,200 kilometers. If you follow European roads, that would get you from Amsterdam to Ankara (approximately).
The Tesla Model S Plaid.
The team discovered that the battery’s interlayer, which keeps the electrodes separated, blocks polysulfides. That is a byproduct that is created within the battery and affects the battery’s life. That byproduct causes the battery to deteriorate at a faster rate and therefore can’t last as long.
2,000 times charging
The researchers expect the batteries, with lithium and sulfur, to be rechargeable up to two thousand times. Current batteries often charge three hundred to five hundred times, but after that the battery deteriorates rapidly. Within that margin, the battery retains eighty percent of its original power.
In addition, it is nice that sulfur lithium batteries do not need rare raw materials. Such raw materials are not only expensive, but also a disaster for the environment. Since sulfur is another byproduct, coming from the metallurgy and kerosene industries, it would be nice if we could use it in this sustainable way for our needs.