{"id":12112,"date":"2019-04-29T19:24:17","date_gmt":"2019-04-30T02:24:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/?p=12112"},"modified":"2019-04-29T19:24:17","modified_gmt":"2019-04-30T02:24:17","slug":"hondas-fluoride-battery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/hondas-fluoride-battery\/","title":{"rendered":"Honda’s Fluoride Battery"},"content":{"rendered":"

Can the stuff that protects your teeth find happiness storing electrical energy?\u00a0 Researchers are brushing up on their chemistry to produce a fluoride battery \u2013 almost the total opposite of a lithium battery.\u00a0 Three years ago, The<\/em> Journal of Fluorine Chemistry<\/em> quibbled,<\/a> \u201cOnly a handful of publications exist on the topic of fluoride ion batteries (FIBs). These are electrochemical cells in which a negative anion\u2014fluoride\u2014enables charge transport. In this review, we will report, for the first time, an extensive theoretical screening of FIBs as well as an analysis of the safety and toxicity of electrochemical couples of such batteries.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 It continued with an exploration of high-temperature (150\u00b0 C, or 302\u00b0 F) and room-temperature examples of fluoride cells and ended with comparisons of seven different cathode and nine different anode materials \u201cto further illustrate the potential and issues of such battery systems.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Now, Honda, researchers from the California Institute of Technology (CalTech), NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and a scientist now at Purdue<\/a> are finding new ways to make Fluoride live up to its promise.\u00a0 Researchers hope to achieve a more powerful storage device which is more environmentally friendly, Honda reports, \u201cThe collective team of scientists co-authored a new paper on the topic that was published in\u00a0Science<\/em> and is available here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The abstract for their paper explains: \u201cFluoride ion batteries are potential \u2018next-generation\u2019 electrochemical storage devices that offer high energy density. At present, such batteries are limited to operation at high temperatures because suitable fluoride ion\u2013conducting electrolytes are known only in the solid state. We report a liquid fluoride ion\u2013conducting electrolyte with high ionic conductivity, wide operating voltage, and robust chemical stability based on dry tetraalkylammonium fluoride salts in ether solvents. Pairing this liquid electrolyte with a copper\u2013lanthanum trifluoride (Cu@LaF3) core-shell cathode, we demonstrate reversible fluorination and defluorination reactions in a fluoride ion electrochemical cell cycled at room temperature. Fluoride ion\u2013mediated electrochemistry offers a pathway toward developing capacities beyond that of lithium ion technology.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Christopher Brooks, Chief Scientist, Honda Research Institute, and a co-author of the paper notes, “Fluoride-ion batteries offer a promising new battery chemistry with up to ten times more energy density than currently available Lithium batteries.\u00a0 Unlike Li-ion batteries, FIBs do not pose a safety risk due to overheating, and obtaining the source materials for FIBs creates considerably less environmental impact than the extraction process for lithium and cobalt.”<\/p>\n