Electrochemical energy storage devices
摘要
說明書
Conventional batteries, for the most part, are comprised of liquids and/or gels, which do not lend themselves to precision manufacturing or extreme reductions in scale, and which may be subject to leakage and/or evaporation and may require external containment vessels.
Conventional batteries do not thrive in extreme temperature environments. With the exception of the small subset of high temperature batteries, such as sodium sulfur and lithium sulfur types, almost none can endure temperatures of even a hundred degrees Celsius, while operation at zero degrees Celsius and below results in greatly diminished capacity and sluggish performance.
Conventional batteries are low voltage devices, with about 4 volts representing the maximum operating potential of any established chemistry, and 2 volts or less being more representative. Such a voltage range is impractically low for many applications, and thus battery manufacturers must resort to connecting a number of individual cells in series to achieve higher voltages. Balancing such series of cells can be difficult due to normal cell-to-cell variation in electrical output. Individual cell failure can also result in lost capacity and diminished usability.
Most of the established conventional battery chemistries appear to be approaching the ends of their respective development cycles and have been subject to diminishing returns in terms of performance improvements.
Such deficiencies are attributable both to the chemistries themselves, the design and articulation of the electrodes and their interface with the electrolyte material, and with the way that traditional fabrication techniques have tended to dictate architecture.
