[{"command":"openDialog","selector":"#drupal-modal","settings":null,"data":"\u003Cdiv id=\u0022republish_modal_form\u0022\u003E\u003Cform class=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form ecl-form\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 action=\u0022\/en\/article\/modal\/9184\u0022 method=\u0022post\u0022 id=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 accept-charset=\u0022UTF-8\u0022\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHorizon articles can be republished for free under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EYou must give appropriate credit. We ask you to do this by:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 1) Using the original journalist\u0027s byline\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 2) Linking back to our original story\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 3) Using the following text in the footer: This article was originally published in \u003Ca href=\u0027#\u0027\u003EHorizon, the EU Research and Innovation magazine\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003ESee our full republication guidelines \u003Ca href=\u0027\/horizon-magazine\/republish-our-stories\u0027\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EHTML for this article, including the attribution and page view counter, is below:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022js-form-item form-item js-form-type-textarea form-item-body-content js-form-item-body-content ecl-form-group ecl-form-group--text-area form-no-label ecl-u-mv-m\u0022\u003E\n \n\u003Cdiv\u003E\n \u003Ctextarea data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 aria-describedby=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 id=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 name=\u0022body_content\u0022 rows=\u00225\u0022 cols=\u002260\u0022 class=\u0022form-textarea ecl-text-area\u0022\u003E\u003Ch2\u003ENew batteries could share a unique bond with milk and kitchen foil\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003ELithium-ion batteries have fuelled our age of portable electronics, but they have increasingly become a victim of their own success. Lithium mining is expensive, and the metal is dangerous to handle, making processing and recycling difficult.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EDemand is also outstripping available supplies, whose geographic isolation in places like the Australian outback can make supply chains difficult.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EEU data shows that Europe will need up to 60 times more lithium by 2050 to fulfil the demand for electric car batteries and renewable energy storage that will form the backbone of reaching emissions goals laid out in the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/info\/strategy\/priorities-2019-2024\/european-green-deal_en\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EEuropean Green Deal\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\u0022tw-text-center tw-text-blue tw-font-bold tw-text-2xl lg:tw-w-1\/2 tw-border-2 tw-border-blue tw-p-12 tw-my-8 lg:tw-m-12 lg:tw--ml-16 tw-float-left\u0022\u003E\n \u003Cspan class=\u0022tw-text-5xl tw-rotate-180\u0022\u003E\u201c\u003C\/span\u003E\n \u003Cp class=\u0022tw-font-serif tw-italic\u0022\u003ECalcium is one the most abundant elements on the earth\u2019s crust. It\u2019s not as geographically concentrated as lithium is. This could make a battery cheap because the raw material is cheap\r\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cfooter\u003E\n \u003Ccite class=\u0022tw-not-italic tw-font-normal tw-text-sm tw-text-black\u0022\u003EDr M. Rosa Palac\u00edn, ICMAB-CSIC\u003C\/cite\u003E\n \u003C\/footer\u003E\n\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EThat has led researchers like Dr M. Rosa Palac\u00edn to try and create similarly effective batteries out of more abundant elements found right inside Europe. Based at \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/icmab.es\/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EICMAB-CSIC\u003C\/a\u003E near Barcelona, she and her team from around the EU aim to build a prototype battery that uses periodic neighbour calcium instead of lithium. The effort is funded by a European Innovation Council Open Pathfinder grant and has been dubbed the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/cordis.europa.eu\/project\/id\/766617\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003ECARBAT\u003C\/a\u003E project.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EFound in everything from bones to chalk, calcium is roughly 2000 times more common than lithium.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u2018Calcium is one the most abundant elements on the earth\u2019s crust,\u2019 said Dr Palac\u00edn. \u2018It\u2019s not as geographically concentrated as lithium is. This could make a battery cheap because the raw material is cheap.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EA Calcium Supplement\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EAll batteries rely on a similar structure. Positive ions flow from a negative electrode across an electrolyte to a positive electrode, while negative electric current flows outside the battery and can be used to power devices.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EBut using calcium as the negative electrode provides advantages that graphite-using lithium-ion batteries cannot \u2013 greater energy density, or how much energy can be stored per kilogram.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u2018With this configuration we were suggesting in theory we could achieve very high energy density, and this is due to the fact that we would use a metal as one of the electrodes,\u2019 Dr Palac\u00edn explained.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003ELithium-ion batteries can\u2019t achieve as high an energy density since they cannot use highly reactive metallic lithium as an electrode in a battery. It tends to form dendrites, tiny rigid tree-like structures that can grow inside a lithium battery and cause short circuits or even for the battery to explode over many uses.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EUsing calcium metal within the battery let researchers take advantage of its elemental properties, with two electrons in its outer shell that it can lose.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u2018As any calcium travels through the electrolyte, two electrons would travel outside (instead of one with lithium),\u2019 she said. \u2018One could imagine that for the same battery size, the range would be higher if you used it in an electric vehicle, provided a suitable positive electrode is found.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EFinding the right salt\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EYet that same property made choosing other components to build a prototype battery, such as the electrolyte that ions flow through, more complicated.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u2018There are many interactions in the electrolyte between the Ca2+ ions and the solvent molecules, and this hindered the mobility of calcium,\u2019 said Dr Palac\u00edn.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EVery good conductivity in the electrolyte means that ions can move faster, and the battery will have a higher power.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003ETo solve this, researchers modelled different salts and solvents to find an electrolyte that would create a passivation layer on the calcium electrode which makes it easier for ions to transfer.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u2018In the end it seems that all the electrolyte salts which work contain boron,\u2019 she said. \u2018We used calcium tetrafluoroborate dissolved in a mixture of ethylene and propylene carbonate.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EThe next steps for commercialising the prototype would be to improve the methods used to fabricate electrodes using calcium and to develop suitable positive electrodes.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u2018All the engineering for the cell assembly was very challenging since new protocols had to be developed,\u2019 Dr Palac\u00edn said.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EOther abundant elements\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EDr Juan Lastra at the Technical University of Denmark was involved in another effort to create batteries out of more common elements. A researcher on the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/cordis.europa.eu\/project\/id\/766581\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003ESALBAGE\u003C\/a\u003E project, he was part of a team that worked on making a battery out of an aluminium anode and a sulfur cathode.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EWhile aluminium is even more abundant than calcium, using it in a battery created similar challenges.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u2018All these multivalent ions (Ca2+, Al3+) are very reactive\u2026and it is difficult to move these ions by themselves,\u2019 he said.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EIn aluminium-sulfur batteries, the aluminium is always in the form of aluminium and some chloride ions, AlCl4-.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u2018You have a conversion process where this aluminium gets decoupled gradually from the AlCl4 cluster to react with the sulfur in the cathode side,\u2019 said Dr Lastra. \u2018It\u2019s more like the lead-acid battery you have in your car rather than the lithium-ion battery in your phone.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EComputer-built bendable batteries\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003ETo improve the transfer of these ions, the team focused on creating using a new type of electrolyte known as a deep eutectic solvent.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u2018A eutectic solvent is when you put two solids together and they become a liquid,\u2019 Dr Lastra explained. \u2018Like when you put salt and ice together and they form a liquid (brine) even below freezing.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EUsing a supercomputer, they modelled how to combine an aluminium chloride salt with urea, which is commonly found in urine, to find the best mixing ratio for a liquid electrolyte.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u2018We model around 300 atoms at most\u2026and our simulation time is not more than one nanosecond,\u2019 said Dr Lastra. \u2018But to simulate one nanosecond of this liquid takes half a year.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EIt takes so long because the researchers must look at one million steps per nanosecond to properly simulate all the possible reactions.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EArmed with the right ratio for the electrolyte, researchers for the project in Spain found that they could make the electrolyte a gel by adding polymers to the solution.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u2018Having a gel is very advantageous in terms of safety and in terms of form factor,\u2019 said Dr Lastra. \u2018If you have gel then your battery will be flexible, and you will be able to bend it.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EUsing a gel instead of a liquid also adds safety in that the battery can\u2019t easily leak. This comes on top of the fact that the materials are all safe and inexpensive.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u2018It\u2019s all based on cheap materials. Aluminium, sulfur, the electrolyte itself and urea is very, very cheap. Even the polymer is cheap,\u2019 Dr Lastra said.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\u0022tw-text-center tw-text-blue tw-font-bold tw-text-2xl lg:tw-w-1\/2 tw-border-2 tw-border-blue tw-p-12 tw-my-8 lg:tw-m-12 lg:tw--ml-16 tw-float-left\u0022\u003E\n \u003Cspan class=\u0022tw-text-5xl tw-rotate-180\u0022\u003E\u201c\u003C\/span\u003E\n \u003Cp class=\u0022tw-font-serif tw-italic\u0022\u003EFor stationary applications, like storing energy from a wind farm or solar power, this type of technology could be competitive\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cfooter\u003E\n \u003Ccite class=\u0022tw-not-italic tw-font-normal tw-text-sm tw-text-black\u0022\u003EDr Juan Lastra, Technical University of Denmark\u003C\/cite\u003E\n \u003C\/footer\u003E\n\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EThe safety of the components could be a key factor in future-proofing the battery. One of the main disadvantages seen with lithium-ion batteries has been that they contain toxic and rare elements, making it hard to integrate them in the circular economy.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EAluminium-sulfur batteries offer the promise of sourcing components from within Europe and increased energy security for industry. Future refinement could even help increase our uptake of renewable energy by storing power when they are not actively generating it.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u2018For stationary applications, like storing energy from a wind farm or solar power, this type of technology could be competitive,\u2019 Dr Lastra said.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EThe research in this article was funded by the EU. If you liked this article, please consider sharing it on social media.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022tw-text-center tw-bg-bluelightest tw-p-12 tw-my-12 tw--mx-16\u0022\u003E\n \u003Ch3 class=\u0022tw-font-sans tw-font-bold tw-text-blue tw-uppercase tw-text-lg tw-mb-8\u0022\u003EWhy the EU supports energy storage research and innovation\u003C\/h3\u003E\n \u003Cspan class=\u0022tw-inline-block tw-w-1\/6 tw-h-1 tw-bg-blue tw-mb-8\u0022\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EWith electrification set to be one of the main pathways to decarbonisation, batteries as electricity storage devices will become one of the key enablers of a low-carbon economy. Which is why \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/info\/research-and-innovation\/research-area\/energy-research-and-innovation\/energy-storage-and-distribution_en\u0022\u003Edeveloping\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp; \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/energy.ec.europa.eu\/topics\/research-technology-and-innovation\/energy-storage_en#eu-initiatives-on-batteries\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Ebatteries\/energy storage\u003C\/a\u003E is a strategic priority for the EU\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EHence, global demand for batteries is expected to grow very rapidly over the coming years, making the market for batteries a very strategic one. 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