NASA may have just discovered the perfect elements for the best battery. One of the U.S. Space Agency's divisions is working on developing lighter, safer, and more effective batteries.

NASA SABER Developing Better Batteries

The current industry standard for electric vehicle batteries, lithium-ion batteries, includes liquids that make them susceptible to overheating, fire, and gradual charge depletion. NASA is developing experimental solid-state battery packs that do not have these issues as part of its SABERS (Solid-state Architecture Batteries for Enhanced Rechargeability and Safety) project.

NASA's Convergent Aeronautics Solutions initiative, which aims to research specific technologies to address some of aviation's most pressing problems, including battery-powered flight, provides funding for SABERS.

Around 2% of all greenhouse gas emissions worldwide are carbon emissions from aviation. Batteries are suggested as a potential reducing alternative to jet fuel, contributing much to our emission rate.

Solid-state batteries from SABERS have been developed during the past year to create a discharge rate ten times higher than any other example on the market and then again by a factor of 5.

More weight can be saved by stacking sulfur and selenium cells directly on top of one another inside the battery without using casings. Batteries can be piled on top of one another without separating, even the cells themselves.

"Not only does this design eliminate 30 to 40 percent of the battery's weight, it also allows us to double or even triple the energy it can store, far exceeding the capabilities of lithium-ion batteries that are considered to be the state of the art," said Rocco Viggiano, principal investigator for SABERS at NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland.

The SABERS team has so far been able to power items at a rate of 500 watt-hours per kilogram, double that of an electric automobile.

According to NASA, the main goal of SABERS this year was to demonstrate that the battery's characteristics satisfy its energy and safety requirements while also demonstrating that it can run safely under actual circumstances and at maximum power.

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Lithium-Ion Battery To Stay For More Years?

Researchers have been developing better alternatives to lithium-ion batteries. However, some also acknowledge that lithium-ion will remain in the market for at least a decade.

The Nobel Prize-winning inventor of the first rechargeable lithium-ion battery, M. Stanley Whittingham addressed the future of lithium-ion at the SLAC-Stanford Battery Research Center Launch Symposium. He said his new company wanted to bridge the gaps between companies that create, manufacture, and use large energy storage devices.

Before other technologies could equal lithium-ion technology in terms of pricing, Whittingham predicted it would take at least five to ten years. Whittingham is concerned about how these energy storage devices are produced and used, even if they are likely to remain the norm. His worries relate to battery handling safety, mining, manufacturing, and recycling.

Meanwhile, oxygen-ion batteries could be another eco-friendly alternative to lithium-ion batteries. These new batteries are game-changers and dubbed "immortal" because even if oxygen-ion batteries lose a little oxygen each time they charge or discharge, they can be replenished immediately because oxygen is in the atmosphere.

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