11.15-16.23-RD-Sadoway

Conference Video|Duration: 25:59
November 16, 2023
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  • Video details
    Today’s lithium-ion batteries are still too expensive for most large-scale applications. To address this limitation, Prof. Sadoway has founded Avanti: “The aluminum battery – A unique storage solution for widespread decarbonization.” This new battery architecture uses aluminum and sulfur (two of the most abundant elements on earth) as its two electrode materials, with a molten salt electrolyte in between.

    The molten salt the team chose as an electrolyte simply because of its low melting point turned out to have a fortuitous advantage. One of the biggest problems in battery reliability is the formation of dendrites, which are narrow spikes of metal that build up on one electrode and eventually grow across to contact the other electrode, causing a short circuit and hampering efficiency. But this particular salt, it happens, is very good at preventing that malfunction.

    Avanti is working on demonstrating that the technology works at scale, including running through hundreds of charging cycles.

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  • Video details
    Today’s lithium-ion batteries are still too expensive for most large-scale applications. To address this limitation, Prof. Sadoway has founded Avanti: “The aluminum battery – A unique storage solution for widespread decarbonization.” This new battery architecture uses aluminum and sulfur (two of the most abundant elements on earth) as its two electrode materials, with a molten salt electrolyte in between.

    The molten salt the team chose as an electrolyte simply because of its low melting point turned out to have a fortuitous advantage. One of the biggest problems in battery reliability is the formation of dendrites, which are narrow spikes of metal that build up on one electrode and eventually grow across to contact the other electrode, causing a short circuit and hampering efficiency. But this particular salt, it happens, is very good at preventing that malfunction.

    Avanti is working on demonstrating that the technology works at scale, including running through hundreds of charging cycles.

Locked Interactive transcript