Scientists have invented a new type of lithium-ion battery that can be safely used at 100 ℃

Lithium-ion batteries have become popular in people's daily lives(electric cars and mobile phones are everywhere), but researchers are still trying to create safer versions. Lithium-ion batteries are well-known for their "small size and large capacity," but they can easily cause big problems at high temperatures. In order to avoid "spontaneous combustion," replacing flammable liquid electrolytes with solid forms may be one way to overcome this problem. The researchers have just come up with a possible answer: a solid lithium-ion battery that can withstand temperatures of 100 degrees Celsius without catching fire.

Even if you don't put your phone in the sun, you may recall the high temperature warning on the screen, such as "Please continue to use it after cooling."

This is because the liquid electrolyte in the battery can expand or be ignited at high temperatures. Incorrect charging and overheating may be one of the causes of this type of failure.

Although the probability of lithium battery failure is not high, its overall ownership in the world is still quite amazing. Of course, you certainly do not want to have such an accident with the iPhone or the electric car driving.

Researchers want lithium-ion batteries to be safer by building smart chips to monitor battery health or replacing liquid electrolytes with solid ones.

Electrolytes are flooded between positive and negative electrodes, and solid-state batteries are clearly more resistant to high temperatures, although this concept also poses another problem -- how to connect solid electrodes to solid electrolytes, allowing charge flow, minimizing resistance, and charging time.

Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich have proposed a battery design that claims to have solved the problem. They likened the new battery to a sandwich, with two pieces of bread on the electrode and a solid electrolyte on the middle layer of meat.

Garnet is a mineral that forms various gemstones. It is used as a grinding material in water knife cutting and is also the material with the highest conductivity of lithium ions.

The team crafted the solid Garnet electrolyte to take advantage of its porous surface properties. The viscous negative allows it to penetrate Kongzhong, so that the contact area between the electrode and the electrolyte is very large, which means that the battery can charge faster.

In the test, the team found that it can withstand high temperatures of 100 °C(212 °F). "Batteries using liquid or gel electrolytes can not withstand such high temperatures," said co-author Janvanden Broek.

At the current stage, the optimal operating temperature of the battery is 95 °C(203 °F) and above, which can better promote the movement of lithium ions. As for the application prospects, it is also suitable for deployment in energy storage power plants.

Details of the study have been published in the recent issue of Advanced Energy Materials.

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