Researchers developed a “massless” battery that improves the operating range of an electric car by up to 70% – This is how it’s possible

Researchers at the Swedish Chalmers University of Technology have developed a so-called massless battery. According to researchers, battery technology could halve the mass of a laptop, make a smartphone as thin as a credit card, or increase the range of an electric car by 70 percent.

It is a so-called structural battery. The term refers to multipurpose materials that, in addition to storing electrochemical energy, can carry mechanical loads.

“We have succeeded in developing a carbon fiber composite battery that is as rigid as aluminum and sufficiently energy dense for commercial use,” the first author of the study Richa Chaudhary says in the university’s press release.

Chaudhary compares battery material to the human skeleton: both have simultaneous uses.

Structural batteries have been researched at Chalmers University of Technology since 2018. Recently, significant advances in mechanical properties and energy density have been made in the research.

Currently, the energy density of the material is about 30 Wh/kg. The number is lower than most batteries today, but they are not completely comparable.

A structured battery can be made of light material, which reduces the total mass of the device or vehicle. When, for example, the mass of the vehicle decreases, less electricity is consumed.

The design of vehicles has high requirements, especially in relation to safety. In order to meet the requirements, the research team has improved the material’s elasticity coefficient, which describes the piece’s stiffness.

During the research, the elasticity coefficient has been increased from 25 gigapascals to 70 gigapascals. Now the elasticity coefficient is the same as aluminum, but the material is lighter.

Based on the researchers’ calculations, the operating range of electric cars could be up to 70 percent better in the future if structural batteries were introduced in cars.

At this point, researchers still have a lot to do before structural batteries can be manufactured on a large scale.

The group’s goal is to develop a battery that can be commercialized. As the research continues, a company has been established for commercialization Sinonus AB.

A study describing the battery’s properties has been published in the journal Advanced Materials.