Scientists developed a nickel-iron battery, suggesting a potential application in storing renewable energy.
Researchers at UCLA have revived a more than century-old battery design, first developed by Thomas Edison, using modern nanotechnology to create a low-cost, long-lasting energy storage system that supports renewable power grids.
The original Edison battery design had extremely slow charging times, so scientists used a nickel-iron battery by shrinking iron-based materials to the nanoscale, increasing surface area and making the battery charge more quickly, according to chemistry professor Richard Kaner. The project has been ongoing for over a decade, and scientists from many different universities around the world have collaborated on the design, according to researcher Maher El-Kady.
“It’s fascinating to look back at something that worked well in the past and ask how modern science can make it viable again,” El-Kady said.
The battery could provide a low-cost alternative for grid-level energy storage, which is a challenge as renewable energy sources become more common. According to Kaner, the redesigned battery is cheaper and can be produced more efficiently since it is made up of earth-abundant materials, rather than lithium. While the new battery is unlikely to replace lithium ion batteries in long-range electric vehicles, researchers say it is suitable for grid storage, especially because it has a long lifespan with minimal degradation.
In addition, Kaner said that nickel-iron batteries are an environmentally friendly and less dangerous alternative to lithium ion batteries because they can be designed with water-based electrolytes, which decreases the fire explosion risk that lithium batteries carry. Despite the progress, their research remains at the experimental stage because, in order to commercialize, they need to test full battery cells and reduce costs further.
“It’s a promising technology,” Kaner said. “The research we do in our lab is very basic research, and then somebody else will need to take this and turn it into a product. I’ve started several companies and so we have the ability, we know how to move things from the lab to the marketplace, but then it’s a whole other set of problems and it often involves raising lots of capital.”
El-Kady and Kaner are also on the board of Nanotech Energy, a company that creates graphene-powered batteries, which can be used in electric cars, smartphones and medical devices in the future, according to Kaner. As renewable energy adoption increases, El-Kady said the need for affordable, durable storage solutions will only grow.
