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Battery Breakthrough for Electric Cars

32 points by 1cvmask 5y ago

nielsbot 5y ago
I'm too lazy to follow that BLT analogy correctly. I don't think it's a good one.
- smackeyacky 5y ago
  You don't have dendrites growing in your BLT? I mean I know bacon is essential for a BLT but I didn't know it was stopping all sorts of shenanigans growing out of the tomato :-)
  - aww_dang 5y ago
    I thought the mayonnaise protects the bread, but it isn't mentioned.
    - rasputnik6502 5y ago
      Shhh it's the secret sauce
- meepmorp 5y ago
  Personally, I was convinced by the exploded diagram of the sandwich. The tomato placement was what sold it.
rich_sasha 5y ago
I do love a dr Xin Li working on Lithium batteries!
deadmutex 5y ago
Cool https://hn.algolia.com/?q=battery+breakthrough https://hn.algolia.com/?q=battery+breakthrough What's the definition of a breakthrough here?
audunw 5y ago
Sounds similar to QuantumScapes battery. Anyone know what’s different? There was just a very interesting interview with Munroe: https://youtu.be/OKFiQIMyF-A https://youtu.be/OKFiQIMyF-A Seems like they and their customers believe the battery is ready for mass production.
danmaz74 5y ago
TLDR: it's a solid-state lithium-metal battery design which is able to stop the growth of lithium dendrites which usually make that design unstable; lithium-metal has higher energy density and sustains currents that could fully charge a car in "10 to 20 minutes". Usual disclaimer: "the flexibility and versatility of our multilayer design makes it potentially compatible with mass production procedures in the battery industry. Scaling it up to the commercial battery won’t be easy and there are still some practical challenges, but we believe they will be overcome.”
tuatoru 5y ago
> The big challenge with lithium-metal batteries has always been chemistry. No. The big challenge for lithium metal batteries (and every other battery research project) is, has always been, and always will be, manufacturability. Five or six years ago I contemplated starting a satirical blog, "Revolutionary Battery Chemistry of the Week", modelled after the "Dinosaur Fossil of the Week" blog, which sadly seems to have disappeared. Since then, thousands of "breakthrough", "revolutionary" battery chemistries have been announced. Yet, somehow, actual in-use batteries are based on incremental improvements to Li-NMC and LiFePO4 chemistries. A primary reason is manufacturability.

32 points by 1cvmask 5y ago

nielsbot 5y ago

I'm too lazy to follow that BLT analogy correctly. I don't think it's a good one.

smackeyacky 5y ago
You don't have dendrites growing in your BLT? I mean I know bacon is essential for a BLT but I didn't know it was stopping all sorts of shenanigans growing out of the tomato :-)
- aww_dang 5y ago
  I thought the mayonnaise protects the bread, but it isn't mentioned.
  - rasputnik6502 5y ago
    Shhh it's the secret sauce
meepmorp 5y ago
Personally, I was convinced by the exploded diagram of the sandwich. The tomato placement was what sold it.

rich_sasha 5y ago

I do love a dr Xin Li working on Lithium batteries!

deadmutex 5y ago

Cool https://hn.algolia.com/?q=battery+breakthrough https://hn.algolia.com/?q=battery+breakthrough What's the definition of a breakthrough here?

audunw 5y ago

Sounds similar to QuantumScapes battery. Anyone know what’s different? There was just a very interesting interview with Munroe: https://youtu.be/OKFiQIMyF-A https://youtu.be/OKFiQIMyF-A Seems like they and their customers believe the battery is ready for mass production.

danmaz74 5y ago

TLDR: it's a solid-state lithium-metal battery design which is able to stop the growth of lithium dendrites which usually make that design unstable; lithium-metal has higher energy density and sustains currents that could fully charge a car in "10 to 20 minutes". Usual disclaimer: "the flexibility and versatility of our multilayer design makes it potentially compatible with mass production procedures in the battery industry. Scaling it up to the commercial battery won’t be easy and there are still some practical challenges, but we believe they will be overcome.”

tuatoru 5y ago

> The big challenge with lithium-metal batteries has always been chemistry. No. The big challenge for lithium metal batteries (and every other battery research project) is, has always been, and always will be, manufacturability. Five or six years ago I contemplated starting a satirical blog, "Revolutionary Battery Chemistry of the Week", modelled after the "Dinosaur Fossil of the Week" blog, which sadly seems to have disappeared. Since then, thousands of "breakthrough", "revolutionary" battery chemistries have been announced. Yet, somehow, actual in-use batteries are based on incremental improvements to Li-NMC and LiFePO4 chemistries. A primary reason is manufacturability.