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Rubber material may be key to ing inorganic solid-state electrolytes. But
longer lasting EV batteries they are hard to make, expensive and are
not environmentally friendly,” said Seung
ATLANTA, Ga. — For electric vehicles Woo Lee, associate professor in the Wood-
(EVs) to become mainstream, they ruff School of Mechanical Engineering. He
need cost-effective, safer, longer-last- is part of a team of researchers who have
ing batteries that won’t explode dur- uncovered a rubber-based organic polymer
superior to other materials.
ing use or harm the environment.
Solid polymer electrolytes continue to at-
Promising alternative tract great interest because of their low
Researchers at the Georgia Institute of manufacturing cost, non-toxicity and soft
Technology may have found a promis- nature.
ing alternative to conventional lithium-ion
batteries made from a common material: Solid polymer
rubber. electrolytes continue
to attract
Elastomers, or synthetic rubbers, are great interest.
widely used in consumer products and
advanced technologies such as wearable Conventional polymer electrolytes do not
electronics and soft robotics because of have sufficient ionic conductivity and me-
their superior mechanical properties. chanical stability for reliable operation of
solid-state batteries.
The researchers found that the material,
when formulated into a 3D structure, act- Georgia Tech engineers have solved com-
ed as a superhighway for fast lithium-ion mon problems (slow lithium-ion transport
transport with superior mechanical tough- and poor mechanical properties) using the
ness, resulting in longer charging batteries rubber electrolytes.
that can go farther.
The key breakthrough was allowing the
The research, conducted in collaboration material to form a three-dimensional (3D)
with the Korea Advanced Institute of Sci- interconnected plastic crystal phase within
ence and Technology (KIST), was pub- the robust rubber matrix.
lished recently in Nature.
This unique structure has resulted in high
LiIon inherently unstable ionic conductivity, superior mechanical
In conventional lithium-ion batteries, ions properties and electrochemical stability.
are moved by a liquid electrolyte. Howev-
er, the battery is inherently unstable: even Simple process at low temperature
the slightest damage can leak into the This rubber electrolyte can be made us-
electrolyte, leading to explosion or fire. ing a simple polymerization process at low
temperature conditions, generating robust
The safety issues have forced the industry and smooth interfaces on the surface of
to look at solid-state batteries, which can electrodes.
be made using inorganic ceramic material
or organic polymers. So far, researchers’ efforts have seen a
two-time improvement in the battery’s
“Most of the industry is focusing on build- performance/cycle time. next page
