Recently, Professor Yang Yang of the University of Central Florida, Alexander von Humboldt scholar, and Chinese scientist mentioned that the team`s latest research has broken through the core pain points of lithium batteries and can slow down battery degradation.
This breakthrough is mainly to coat one electrode of the battery with a new protective coating-copper-tin film, which can significantly slow down the degradation of the battery and enable the battery to maintain a greater amount of electricity for a longer period of time.
During the charging process of a lithium-ion battery, the lithium ions produced by the positive electrode will move to the negative electrode. If it is discharged, the process is reversed. In other words, when the battery is charged, it will cause the volume of tin to change, causing it to "degrade" rapidly. Therefore, Professor Yang has been exploring ways to improve battery performance, including solving the problem of mechanical degradation of tin anodes in lithium-ion batteries. Now he thinks he may have found a solution.
As part of their research field, Professor Yang and his team explored different variants of alloy materials, each of which is "unique in composition, structure and performance." This led them to invent a thin film made of tin and copper that can be applied to tin anodes. This will keep the electrode stable throughout the charging process.
"Our research work has shown that the anode degradation rate of this film is more than 1000% lower than that of commonly used tin films." Professor Yang said.