https://www.timesnownews.com/auto/e...mance-of-electric-cars-study-article-98487218 This polymer coating on batteries increases performance of electric cars: Study The Berkeley Lab has created a new type of conductive polymer that may allow for more powerful, longer-lasting lithium-ion batteries for electric cars. The polymer, called HOS-PFM, conducts both electrons and ions at the same time, which ensures battery stability and high charge/discharge rates while enhancing battery life. The coating also shows promise as a battery adhesive that could extend the lifetime of a lithium-ion battery from an average of 10 years to about 15 years. author- ANI Updated Mar 8, 2023 | 09:00 AM IST Researchers at Berkeley Lab have created a conductive polymer covering known as HOS-PFM that may allow for more powerful, longer-lasting lithium-ion batteries for electric cars. "The advance opens up a new approach to developing EV batteries that are more affordable and easy to manufacture," said Gao Liu, a senior scientist in Berkeley Lab's Energy Technologies Area. The HOS-PFM coating conducts both electrons and ions at the same time. This ensures battery stability and high charge/discharge rates while enhancing battery life. The coating also shows promise as a battery adhesive that could extend the lifetime of a lithium-ion battery from an average of 10 years to about 15 years, Liu added. To demonstrate HOS-PFM's superior conductive and adhesive properties, Liu and his team coated aluminum and silicon electrodes with HOS-PFM, and tested their performance in a lithium-ion battery setup. Silicon and aluminum are promising electrode materials for lithium-ion batteries because of their potentially high energy storage capacity and lightweight profiles. But these cheap and abundant materials quickly wear down after multiple charge/discharge cycles. During experiments at the Advanced Light Source and the Molecular Foundry, the researchers demonstrated that the HOS-PFM coating significantly prevents silicon- and aluminum-based electrodes from degrading during battery cycling while delivering high battery capacity over 300 cycles, a performance rate that's on par with today's state-of-the-art electrodes. The results are impressive, Liu said, because silicon-based lithium-ion cells typically last for a limited number of charge/discharge cycles and calendar life. The researchers recently described these findings in the journal Nature Energy. The HOS-PFM coating could allow the use of electrodes containing as much as 80% silicon. Such high silicon content could increase the energy density of lithium-ion batteries by at least 30%, Liu said. And because silicon is cheaper than graphite, the standard material for electrodes today, cheaper batteries could significantly increase the availability of entry-level electric vehicles, he added. The team next plans to work with companies to scale up HOS-PFM for mass manufacturing. The Advanced Light Source and Molecular Foundry are DOE Office of Science user facilities at Berkeley Lab. (This is a wire story with a custom headline it has not been edited by Team Times Drive)