Nearly two-thirds of the world’s cobalt, which is the major element needed to make Lithium-ion batteries, is mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Various warring factions in the DRC are known to mine cobalt to fund their warfare, by forcing children as mine workers. This exploitation has raised hackles among international advocacy groups which have blamed tech giants including Apple, Google, Microsoft, Dell and Tesla of “knowingly benefiting from” the exploitation of young kids.
Engineers at IBM Research now claim they are working on a breakthrough new battery technology that could present a path away from the enormous environmental and humanitarian costs associated with lithium-ion batteries. The new battery eliminates the need for heavy metals such as cobalt altogether, while offering nifty performance and safety boosts as well.
Although there are no heavy metals in this battery design, the new battery has been proven to out-perform standard lithium-ion batteries in initial tests, said a source at IBM. “In addition to much lower flammability and more sustainable materials, as well as lower cost due to less expensive materials, the new battery design can be configured to outperform lithium-ion options in a number of areas. This includes charging time, where it can reach an 80 percent charge in less than five minutes, which is critical to applications where quick charging time is key such as within electric vehicles.
In tests, the battery design was able to achieve a power density of more than 10,000 W/L. That exceeds the power level of currently available lithium-ion batteries. The active cathode material in the new battery is iodide, which can be extracted from seawater. This makes it more environmentally friendly than terrestrial mining. Because seawater extraction does not necessarily require fresh water for processing it minimizes the amount of contaminated water that is created for disposal.
However, IBM cautioned that they were still in the early stages of development, so it was difficult to come up with definite timelines for when this battery might be ready for commercial use.
Read Today's News TODAY... on our Telegram Channel click here to join and receive all the latest updates t.me/thetimeskuwait
