Development of light-chargeable lithium ion battery devices

锂离子电池（LIB）是所有种类的便携式电子产品（例如移动的电话、媒体播放器、平板电脑、笔记本电脑等）的空前普及背后的使能“隐形”技术，消费者已经越来越依赖于这些便携式电子产品。现在，LIB正在成为开始为插电式混合动力车（PHEV）和电动汽车（EV）提供动力的推动力量，因为我们的社会正在朝着交通电气化的方向发展，以解决严重的全球气候变化问题。与此同时，LIB被要求通过允许直接存储自发产生的电力，在利用太阳能方面发挥关键作用。然而，越来越多的人意识到，我们正在接近LIB中可以存储多少能量的极限，因此在可用功率上，特别是在便携式设备和电动汽车需要充电之前。这推动了前所未有的研发工作，通过开发新型电池化学物质来改善LIB的能量和功率特性，其中许多都带来了巨大的安全挑战。在这个项目中，我们寻求一种替代策略，通过开发可充电的LIB，即太阳能充电电池来解决能量密度瓶颈。这项研究是与Hydro-Quebec（HQ）合作进行的，Hydro-Quebec是LIB研发的世界领导者，并利用了我们在染料敏化太阳能电池和LIB研究领域的最新进展。 更具体地说，我们提出了一种光吸收锂离子阴极（LiFePO 4）的设计，并将其发展成为光辅助可充电电池设备。 初步的结果提供了验证这种范式转变的概念，现在我们的目标是通过研究和优化的纳米结构光电极的性能和其组装成一个原型，具有长周期的性能进一步发展。这构成了战略性绿色储能领域的高度创新研究，为每年数百亿美元的不断增长的市场中的先进制造活动提供了巨大的增长潜力和经济机会。****

Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are the enabling "invisible" technology behind the unprecedented proliferation of all sort of portable electronics such as mobile phones, media players, tablets, laptops etc. to which consumers have come to depend on in ever increasing numbers. Now LIBs are becoming the enabling force that started powering plug-in hybrid (PHEV) and electric vehicles (EV) as our society is moving towards electrification of transportation to address the serious global issue of climate change. At the same time LIBs are called to play a key role in enabling the harnessing of solar energy by allowing direct storage of the intermittingly generated electricity. However, there is growing realization that we are approaching the limit of how much energy we can store in a LIB hence on the available power-especially in the case of portable devices and electric vehicles before it needs to be recharged. This drives an unprecedented R&D effort towards the improvement of the energy and power characteristics of LIBs by developing novel battery chemistries many of which impose formidable safety challenges. In this project we pursue an alternative strategy to address the energy density bottleneck by developing light-chargeable LIBs, i.e. solar-powered rechargeable batteries. This research is undertaken in collaboration with Hydro-Quebec (HQ), a world leader in LIB R&D, and leverages our recent advances in the areas of dye-sensitized solar cell and LIB research. More specifically we propose the design of a photo-absorbing Li-ion cathode (LiFePO4) and its development into light-assisted rechargeable battery device. Preliminary results have provided validation of this paradigm-shifting concept that now we aim to develop further via the study and optimization of the nanostructured photoelectrode's properties and its assembly into a prototype with long cycling performance. This constitutes highly innovative research in the strategic green energy storage field that holds tremendous growth potential and economic opportunity for advanced manufacturing activity in a constantly growing market of many tens of billions annually. ****