Nanowire Arrays Grown Directly On Titanium Substrate

When Earl Killian made some recommendations for replacement batteries in my electric car, he hinted that Electric Contact might be an excellent choice sometime in the future.

Killian mentioned that “the addition of Mn seems to help.” It would be nice if Lithium Cobalt chemistry became available since an estimated cost is something like $270 per kWh. “But of course this is too new to be in commercial LiIon batteries.”
Co3O4 nanowire arrays growing on current-collecting, Ti foil. “The self-supported nanowire arrays maintain a stable capacity of 700 mAh/g after 20 discharge/charge cycles. When the current is increased to 50C, 50% of the capacity can be retained… Wu’s team developed a template-free method to enable the large-area growth of the nanowires directly on a titanium (Ti) substrate. No carbon or polymer additives are needed, which will save a mixing step.”

Almost simultaneously, a post at Green Car Congress mentioned that Researchers at OSU (Ohio State University) led by Professor Yiying Wu have developed a cobalt oxide nanowire anode. With this new anode material made from nanowire arrays of a cobalt oxide (Co3O4) a lithium-ion battery could offer “increased rate capabilities for high-powered applications, improves the cyclic properties in a rapid charge / discharge process, and increases the energy capacities.”

There are a variety of nano materials in testing, each showing an improvement over previous Li-ion chemistry. Unfortunately, the OSU announcement heralds another development of a material for the anode rather than a much more needed development of a better cathode material. GCC commentator Lulu notes, “Once we come up with better cathode materials then these advanced anodes will be more effective… Anyway, I am a little shocked by all these new chemistries coming out from the labs at a rate of almost one per week!”