Enabling Extreme Fast-Charging of Lithium-ion Batteries with Covalently-Joined Electrode Architectures - Market Assessment

为了减缓和消除气候变化的灾难性后果，减少我们的温室气体排放至关重要。自1999年以来，加拿大的运输部门每年排放的二氧化碳超过7亿吨。这占该国所有排放量的27%。零排放的电池电动汽车（BEV）为这一问题提供了解决方案。然而，电池充电时间长（约一个半小时）是大众大规模采用BEV的最大障碍之一。滑铁卢大学的研究人员最近披露了一种新颖的化学加入策略，该策略大大提高了传统电池和下一代电池的快速充电能力。在这里，我们建议开发这种新的电极制造技术，使传统的锂离子电池能够在几分钟而不是几小时内充电。这一发现依赖于通过将电极的所有部分从用于存储能量的活性材料到用于将电池连接到待供电的外部电路的金属箔物理连接在一起来使锂离子电池电极更具导电性。这种电极制造技术旨在无缝集成到当今工业中现有的电池生产线中。这种制造电极的新方法也进一步加深了我们对异质（不同）材料（如碳颗粒和金属）共价键合工程的了解，其过程需要尽可能少的能量。向BEV的过渡不仅关系到加拿大，也关系到世界其他地区的数万亿美元的运输业。美国、中国和欧盟所有国家都承诺在未来十年内逐步淘汰使用化石燃料的车辆。因此，在加拿大开发快速充电电池技术使我们有机会提升该国在世界舞台上的突出地位和竞争力，成为技术创新的一极，并帮助找到减少对石油依赖的解决方案。

To slow and eliminate the catastrophic consequences of climate change, reducing our emissions of greenhouse gases is vital. Since 1999, the transportation sector in Canada has been emitting in excess of 700 megatonnes of carbon dioxide every year. This represents 27% of all emissions in the country. Zero-emission, battery electric vehicles (BEVs) provide a solution to this problem. However, the long recharging times of batteries (about one hour and a half) is one of the biggest obstacles in the way of mass adoption of BEVs by the public. Researchers at the University of Waterloo have recently disclosed a novel, chemical joining strategy that drastically improves fast-charging capabilities of both traditional and next-generation batteries. Here, we propose to develop this new electrode fabrication technique to enable otherwise traditional lithium-ion batteries to charge in minutes instead of hours. This discovery relies on making Li-ion battery electrode more conductive by physically joining all parts of the electrodes together from the active material used to store the energy to the metal foils that are used to connect the battery to the outside circuit to be powered. This electrode-making technique is designed to be integrated seamlessly into existing battery production lines that are present in industry today. This novel way of making electrodes also furthers our knowledge of engineering of covalent bonding of heterogeneous (different) materials such as carbon particles and metals with processes that require the least amount of energy possible. The transition to BEVs concerns not only Canada but the rest of the world in the multi-trillion-dollar transportation industry. Countries such as the United States, China and all countries of the European union having pledged to phase out their fleet of fossil fuel burning vehicles in the coming decade. Therefore, developing fast-charging battery technologies in Canada gives us a chance to advance the country's prominence and competitiveness on the world-stage as a pole of technological innovation as well as help finding solutions to reduce our dependency on oil.