Breakthrough in battery technology brings reliability and battery longevity to fast-charging EVs and consumer electronics
A research group from the Department of Chemical Engineering, led by Professor Yverick Rangom, has made a breakthrough in lithium-ion battery design to enable extremely fast charging. With this novel technology, the batteries can charge from zero to 80 percent in just 15 minutes, a significant improvement over the current industry standard.
Batteries fabricated using this new strategy were shown to undergo 800 extreme fast charging cycles, a feat not possible with current EV batteries which limit charging times to prevent degradation.
The novel technology addresses major hurdles in the mass adoption of EVs: charging speed and cost.
“We need to make EVs more affordable and accessible, not just for the wealthy,” says Rangom, lead researcher for the Battery Workforce Challenge. “If we can make batteries smaller, charge faster, and last longer, we reduce the overall cost of the vehicle. That makes EVs a more viable option for more people, including those who don’t have home charging stations or who live in apartments. It would also increase the value of second-hand EVs, making electric transportation more accessible.”
The breakthrough comes from the anode design, which traditionally relies on graphite. The research team designed a method to fuse graphite particles with the current collector, drastically improving physical integrity and preserving conductivity over the entire life of the vehicle.
Professor Michael Pope co-lead of of UWaterloo’s Ontario Battery and Electrochemistry -Research Centre brought his expertise in designing and testing next-generation batteries to the research group leveraging funding from an NSERC Idea to Innovation Grant which aims to accelerate the commercialization of University-owned intellectual property such as the patent filed by Rangom and Pope for the covalent bonding strategy. Professor Boxin Zhao, an advanced materials expert, and recent winner of the OPEA Award for Research and Development, assisted with mechanical testing to evaluate the interface of the graphite particles.
The research group also included graduate students Oleksii Sherepenko, Ahad Shafiee, Kiran Gundegowda Kalligowdanadoddi, Bersu Bastug Azer, Parisa Jafarzadeh, Elliot Biro, and Holger Kleinke and post-doctoral fellow, Dr. Alek Cholewinski.
Their approach ensures that the technology can be scalable and implemented using current production lines, offering a low-cost solution to battery manufacturers.