Solid-State Battery: The Future Of Green

Green energy is clean energy that does not emit pollutant into the atmosphere, this is certainly the future as everyone is adopting the concept of going green due to climate and the damage combustion have done to the ozone layer. But the future of green energy or green is the battery to store and transmit that energy.

Battery innovations have been done over the years up to this age of lithium-ion powered battery that is doing great but still have some limitations like it does not charge fast enough and the fact that it does not last so long also have been a cause of concern especially with the growing market and acceptance of electric motors.

This is where solid-state battery comes in as it tackles the issue of long-lasting and fast charge, we will be looking at what is a solid-state battery and what makes it better than the lithium battery, we will also look at its limitations as to why it is not in mass use FOR NOW.

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What is a solid-state battery

A solid-state battery is a battery technology that uses solid electrolytes, instead of liquid or polymer gel electrolytes in lithium-ion or lithium polymer batteries. source

The battery mostly used is the lithium-ion powered batteries, it can be seen in any device from phones, laptops, cars, etc.
The lithium-ion battery is made of an anode the negative terminal, cathode the positive terminal and, a separator and uses a liquid electrolyte that allows the lithium-ion transfer hence the flow of current.

The solid-state battery uses solid electrolytes as in the case of lithium-ion and these solid electrolytes also serve as a separator. They are solid particles packed together under high pressure, this leads to an increase in the energy density.

This increase in energy density leads to a longer-lasting performance and a faster charge when compared to lithium-ion batteries, lower battery damage risk which is also a big issue with the lithium-ion battery when there is a temperature change it might lead to swelling or leakage, can be charged more times than the lithium-ion battery and still run at the same capacity as new as the liquid reduces battery life as it gets to corrode the electrodes in the battery and, lower fire risk unlike lithium-ion batteries that heat up and burn or explode sometimes, the solid-state battery has a lower risk of a fire hazard.

Limitations Of The Solid State Battery

• Solid-state battery will be expensive to produce in a large quantity has it require new technology, though researches are being done to find a way to produce them using existing technology by solid power

• Dendrites grow inside of solid-state batteries during charge and discharge and as they cross dividing layers the battery fails

• Materials used in the creation of solid-state batteries with the right properties are hard to find.

However, the future of solid-state battery looks promising as there are innovation and development in place to roll out this battery in mass production in the coming years, namely;

BMW and Ford invest in Solid-state battery startup for future electric vehicles

Quantum scape in conjunction with Volkswagen is developing a solid-state battery and also tackles its dendrite issue by applying a layer of ceramics and perform well in low temperature

Solid power a startup hopes to find a way to produce solid-state using existing technology as mentioned before to reduce the cost of production

Other notable mentions are Toyota and Panasonic that are both making strides to see solid-state development improves.