TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (NTUST) Professor Wang Fu-min (王復民) received the 2024 Y.Z. Hsu Science Award in green technology for technical innovations improving the safety of lithium batteries.
Wang developed a new oligomer additive to lithium battery cathode material, which can reduce the risk of battery fire and explosion, while maintaining battery performance and battery lifecycle, per an NTUST press release.
Wang said that lithium batteries play an increasingly important role in modern life, not only in electronic products but now in vehicles and energy storage systems. Despite widespread use, there continue to be many instances of lithium batteries exploding, catching fire, and overheating.
Wang, a professor at NTUST’s Institute of Applied Science and Technology, has been devoted to researching batteries and organic materials for 20 years. Wang said improving the safety of lithium batteries while maintaining performance is difficult as it is often a trade-off between performance and safety.
“If you want a battery to be safe, the performance will decrease. And better efficiency or the ease of use of the battery will increase the safety risk,” said Wang.
Wang used an additive to form a passive film structure on the surface of the battery’s active material to stabilize the chemical reaction for lithium batteries operating under high temperatures and high voltage. Although this technology will increase the raw material cost by about 3-5% per kilogram, a doubling of the safety test pass rate achieves a reasonable balance between cost and safety.
"Lithium batteries are not 100% safe," said Wang. He said existing technology can only give people more time to escape when a battery catches fire or explodes.
Wang said ideally lithium batteries should not catch fire or explode when they fail, but should instead lose their function and battery life.
Wang's future research will focus on reducing the environmental impact of lithium batteries. He said the production of lithium batteries requires heavy metals such as nickel and manganese, which are polluting, making it difficult to make the batteries eco-friendly. However, it is possible to use green materials in packaging.
And in the future, Wang said there may be the possibility of developing carbon dioxide batteries or environmentally friendly organic polymer batteries. Wang also said advancements in battery manufacturing and recycling can lessen the environmental impact of lithium batteries.
