Toyota developing magnesium batteries as lithium alternative

Toyota developing magnesium batteries as lithium alternative

Whether you're talking about cameras, phones or electric cars, lithium is the current battery of choice. Lithium can pack much more energy than the nickel-metal hydride cells hiding in the boot of a Toyota Prius, but that doesn't mean that the rare earth metal represents the zenith of battery technology.

Bloomberg reports that scientists and engineers at Toyota's Ann Arbor, Michigan technical center are on the lookout for the next big thing in batteries shch as Dell Inspiron 3700 battery, Dell Precision M40 battery, Dell Precision M50 battery,dell Inspiron 700m battery, dell Inspiron 710m battery, dell F5136 battery, dell 312-0306 battery, dell 312-0305 battery,dell D5561 battery, and the automaker thinks it may be on to something. Lithium's possible replacement is composed of magnesium and sulfur, and Toyota engineering manager Jeffrey Makarewicz reportedly feels the batteries can be ready as soon as the year 2020.

The problem with lithium, according to Makarewicz, is that it can only optimally hold about 2,000 kilowatt-hours of energy. That's apparently not enough spark to consistently power the plug-ins and EVs of the future. We're guessing Makarewicz is alluding to the fact that electric cars like the Chevrolet Volt and Nissan Leaf only have enough juice to venture 35 to 100 miles on a single charge, while even the most inefficient gasoline mills can travel hundreds of miles

So, will magnesium one day surpass lithium as the battery guts of the future? We have no idea, but we apparently have about a decade of patient waiting before we can find out.

cheaper electric car batteries

cheaper electric car batteries

In his state of the union address yesterday, President Obama called for the U.S. to be the first country to put one million electric cars on the roads by 2015. While there’s great interest in electric cars, mass adoption is still hobbled by availability, battery prices and consumer concerns about range limitations.

Today, GM announced it had invested $7 million in Envia Systems, a Newark, Calif.-based maker of lithium-ion cathode technology that it says can increase energy density of battery cells by one-third and for less money. Envia says it uses cathode materials that store more energy per unit of mass than current cathode materials, meaning less of it can be used, yielding a cheaper battery. GM also licensed Envia’s advanced cathode material for use in future GM electric cars.

The company’s venture capital arm led a $17 million round of fundraising for Envia with investors that included Asahi Kasei and Asahi Glass; and current investors Bay Partners, Redpoint and Pangaea Ventures.

“Skeptics have suggested it would probably be many years before lithium-ion batteries shch as dell Inspiron 4100 battery, dell Inspiron 2500 battery, dell Latitude CPX battery, dell Latitude C600 battery, dell Latitude C610 battery, dell Latitude C640 battery, dell 1691P battery, dell 75UYF battery, dell 5081P battery,
with significantly lower cost and higher capability are available, potentially limiting sales of electric vehicles for the foreseeable future,” said Jon Lauckner, president of GM Ventures in a statement. “In fact, our announcement today demonstrates that major improvements are already on the horizon.”

Mass-produced electric cars kicked off in December with the all-electric Nissan Leaf, which goes about 100 miles on a fully charged battery and is the first all-electric car widely available by a major automaker. The Volt also went on sale last month; it’s a range extender that goes 25 to 50 miles on battery, then switches to gas. The Ford Focus Electric and an all-electric sedan by startup Coda are slated to go on sale later this year.

battery history

battery history

If you have access to zinc sulfate and copper sulfate, you can try making your own Daniell cell. In the next section, we'll show you how to do it.

The first battery was created by Alessandro Volta in 1800. To create his battery shch as laptop battery, battery online, dell laptop battery, dell Inspiron E1705 battery, dell Inspiron 6000 battery(dell 6000 battery), dell Inspiron 9300 battery, dell Inspiron 9400 battery, dell 310-6321 battery, he made a stack by alternating layers of zinc, blotting paper soaked in salt water, and silver. This arrangement was known as a voltaic pile. The top and bottom layers of the pile must be different metals. If you attach a wire to the top and bottom of the pile, you can measure a voltage and a current from the pile. The pile can be stacked as high as you like, and each layer will increase the voltage by a fixed amount.

In the 1800s, before the invention of the electrical generator (the generator was not invented and perfected until the 1870s), the Daniell cell was extremely common for operating telegraphs and doorbells. The Daniell cell is also known by three other names:

?Crowfoot cell (because of the typical shape of the zinc electrode)

?Gravity cell (because gravity keeps the two sulfates separated)

?Wet cell (because it uses liquids for the electrolytes, as opposed to the modern dry cell)

The Daniell CellThe Daniell cell is a wet cell consisting of copper and zinc plates and copper and zinc sulfates. To make the Daniell cell, the copper plate is placed at the bottom of a glass jar. Copper sulfate solution is poured over the plate to half-fill the jar. Then a zinc plate is hung in the jar and a zinc sulfate solution is poured very carefully into the jar. Copper sulfate is denser than zinc sulfate, so the zinc sulfate "floats" on top of the copper sulfate. Obviously, this arrangement does not work very well in a flashlight, but it works fine for stationary applications.