Safer batteries being designed

Researchers at Stanford University in California, U.S., are trying to find a way to prevent the explosions and fires associated with lithium-ion batteries, which are used in a wide variety of consumer electronics products, including eVapor devices, according to a KCBS story relayed by the TMA.

Doctoral candidate Austin Sendek said that the problem stemmed from the flammable liquid electrolytes used in the batteries.

His research team was trying to identify solid materials that could replace those volatile liquids because solids were “much more stable” and “tend not to vaporize or to blow up”.

Since the number of known lithium-containing compounds is in the tens of thousands, the researchers used a new computer algorithm using artificial intelligence that reduced the list to 21 components.

“The next work that comes out of our labs will be, I think, actual devices, or really in-depth computer simulations done with these materials,” Sendek said.

“We’ve already begun that process and found some really interesting things so far.”