The biggest embarrassment of driving a new energy vehicle is that you suddenly run out of power halfway, and then you can't find a place to charge, which is the most headache.
However, with the continuous advancement of technology, this headache may be slowly solved.
South Korea's Pohang University has achieved a breakthrough in battery technology, theoretically charging 4,000 kilometers on a single charge.
Some time ago, South Korea's Pohang University of Science and Technology published an article on its official website, titled "Revolutionary Battery Technology to Boost EV Range 10-fold or More" (Revolutionary battery technology increases the range of electric vehicles by 10 times or more).
The research results were jointly studied by two professors from the Department of Chemistry at Posco University of Science and Technology (Postech), a professor from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and a professor from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Sogang University, and published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials.
The biggest highlight of this paper is that they broke through the technical bottleneck of silicon anode materials, which can greatly increase the capacity of lithium batteries.
At present, the battery range of new energy vehicles is relatively short, and most cars have a cruising range of less than 700 kilometers, which is simply incomparable with fuel vehicles.
The reason why the cruising range of new energy vehicles is relatively short is mainly limited by battery materials.
At present, new energy vehicle batteries are mainly ternary lithium batteries and lithium iron phosphate batteries, which are composed of cathodes and anodes.
When charging, electrons flow from the cathode to the anode, and when discharging, electrons flow from the anode to the cathode, and the material of the anode directly determines the capacity of the battery.
At present, most lithium batteries on the market use graphite as an anode material, but due to the influence of graphite materials, the storage capacity of its electrons is limited.
But in addition to graphite, there are actually some better alternative materials, such as silicon, silicon can not only be used to make chips, but also can be used as the anode of the battery, and theoretically, the capacity of silicon anode batteries is far more than the capacity of graphite batteries.
According to the paper published by Pohang University of Science and Technology, silicon high-capacity anode materials are essential for making high-energy-density lithium batteries, and they can provide at least 10 times the capacity of graphite or other anode materials currently available.
However, one of the biggest drawbacks of silicon anode batteries is that high-capacity anode materials are prone to volume expansion during reaction with lithium, posing a threat to electronic properties and stability.
To put it bluntly, although the silicon anode material battery has a large capacity, its safety is very poor, and it may cause various risks such as bulging, fire, and leakage at any time, which also leads to the lack of popularity of silicon anode material batteries.
According to the research team at Pohang University of Science and Technology, a new polymer has been developed that utilizes not only hydrogen bonds, but also the Coulomb force (the attraction between positive and negative charges).
The strength of these forces is 250 kJ/mol, which is much higher than the strength of hydrogen bonds, but they are reversible and therefore easy to control volume expansion.
In addition, the team introduced polyethylene glycol to regulate physical properties and promote lithium-ion diffusion, resulting in thick, high-capacity electrodes and maximum energy density in lithium-ion batteries.
According to Professor Park so-jin, a participant in the study, "This study has the potential to significantly increase the energy density of lithium-ion batteries by introducing high-capacity anode materials, thereby extending the range of electric vehicles." Silicon-based anode materials may increase cruising range by at least 10 times.
At present, the cruising range of most graphite anode material batteries is basically between 300 kilometers and 600 kilometers, and the average is about 400 kilometers.
This means that the battery produced by this new technology, on a single charge, can theoretically reach a cruising range of more than 4,000 kilometers.
Will fuel vehicles be eliminated?
In recent years, the topic of fuel vehicles being eliminated has caused many people to discuss, and different people hold different views on whether fuel vehicles will be eliminated, some people believe that although the current new energy vehicles are developing rapidly, there are many drawbacks, and it is impossible to replace fuel vehicles in the short term.
However, from the actual development of global new energy vehicles, the development of new energy vehicles in recent years has been very rapid, the promotion of new energy vehicles in the global market is increasing, and the proportion of electric vehicles in global automobile sales is also increasing.
Especially in some markets such as China and Europe, the growth rate of electric vehicles is very fast.
However, electric vehicles still face many problems, such as short cruising range, slow charging efficiency and so on.
From the actual situation of the market, the cruising range of most electric vehicles is between 300 kilometers and 600 kilometers, and there are very few who can really reach more than 800 kilometers; The charging efficiency is slower, most cars need more than 10 hours to charge slowly, and even fast charging takes about an hour, which greatly affects the experience of new energy vehicles.
For new energy vehicles, battery technology is the core of the core, and whoever can achieve a breakthrough in new energy vehicle battery technology will have more room to play in the market.
The battery industry of new energy vehicles has always been mainly concentrated in China, South Korea and Japan, three countries in Asia, and the competition for new energy vehicle batteries in these three countries is also fierce.
And in order to obtain greater advantages in market competition, some companies such as China and South Korea have continued to increase their research and development efforts for new energy vehicles in recent years, and have also achieved many technical achievements.
If this technology of Pohang University of Science and Technology in South Korea can be applied to practice, it may bring revolutionary subversion to the new energy vehicle battery industry.
Imagine that you can travel 4,000 kilometers on a single charge, whether it is short-term or long-distance traffic.
The most important thing is that in the context of high global refined oil products, the current operating costs of new energy vehicles are much lower than those of fuel vehicles.
If the cruising range of new energy vehicles is greatly improved, and the charging efficiency can also be greatly improved, I believe that many people are likely to switch to new energy vehicles, and the proportion of fuel vehicles in the automobile market will gradually decline.
Although in the short term, new energy cannot completely replace fuel value, the technology with a cruising range of 4,000 kilometers only stays in the laboratory, and there is still a long way to go from mass production; For at least 10 years, fuel vehicles will remain the main type of car.
However, with the continuous advancement of battery technology, the continuous improvement of new energy vehicle infrastructure, and the elimination of fuel vehicles launched by various countries to achieve carbon emission targets, the replacement of traditional fuel vehicles by new energy vehicles will be an inevitable trend in the future.
Therefore, the end of fuel vehicles has not yet arrived, but it is foreseeable that the gradual decline of fuel vehicles will be inevitable