New lightning-fast trick charges EV battery 80% in 9 mins, lasts 300+ cycles

Researchers have devised an approach for solid-state electrocatalysis in lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), transcending the paradigm constraining electrocatalysis to liquid-solid and gas-solid interfaces.

The team at the University of Science and Technology of China utilized a sulfur-doped black phosphorus anode combined with a lithium cobalt oxide cathode.

The design enabled an ultrafast-charging battery that can recharge 80 percent of its energy in just 9 minutes, outperforming previously reported LIBs.

The team claims that their study advances electrocatalysis in solid-state reactions, marking a significant step toward high-energy, fast-charging battery technology with substantial potential for industrial applications.

Doped anode innovation

Electrocatalysis is a process in which a catalyst speeds up an electrochemical reaction by lowering the energy barrier needed for the reaction to occur. In this context, a catalyst is a substance that facilitates the reaction without being consumed in it.

Electrocatalysis is crucial in technologies like fuel cells, batteries , and water splitting, where the catalyst enhances the efficiency of reactions involving electron transfer, such as the oxidation or reduction of molecules at electrodes. This process is key to improving energy conversion and storage in various electrochemical systems.

Anode materials such as silicon and phosphorus are often used in LIBs due to their higher specific capacity compared to traditional graphite anodes. These anodes store lithium ions through alloying reactions. However, the slow movement of lithium ions in these anode materials limits how quickly lithium-ion batteries can recharge.

Furthermore, the reactants and products of the Li-alloying process of anode materials are in solid phases, missing the two-phase contact normally needed for traditional electrocatalysis. Thus, research into electrocatalysis in solid-state reactions is desperately needed.

The team used heteroatom doping, a process in which foreign atoms, known as heteroatoms, are intentionally introduced into a material’s structure to modify its properties. In the context of battery materials, this typically involves replacing some atoms in a material (like carbon) with different atoms (such as nitrogen, sulfur, or phosphorus).

The “doping” alters the material’s electrical, chemical, or structural characteristics, often improving conductivity, stability, or performance in applications like energy storage or catalysis.

Enhanced performance

In this study, researchers used boron for silicon and sulfur for phosphorus to speed up Li-alloying reactions in solid-state electrode material to overcome this difficulty.

A critical heteroatom doping concentration of approximately 5 percent can offer very active sites for the alloying reactions of anode materials, boosting intrinsic chemical bond breaking, according to theoretical predictions and X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) data.

The anode materials continually break into smaller unit cells as a result of this bond cleavage at doped locations, increasing the number of reactive sites and improving reaction kinetics.

According to researchers, using this method, they were able to develop an ultrafast-charging battery with a lithium cobalt oxide (LCO) cathode and a sulfur-doped black phosphorus (S/bP) anode.

The battery surpassed previously published LIBs with excellent performance, recharging 80 percent of its energy in 9 minutes with an energy density of 302 Wh kg-1. Additionally, this superfast charging performance held steady for over 300 cycles.

This novel solid-state electrocatalysis technology holds significant promise for enhancing the performance of electric vehicle (EV) batteries, enabling faster charging and improved energy efficiency.

The details regarding the team’s research were published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society .