Image Credit: Chalmers University of Technology | Henrik Sandsjö

With the continuous advancements we’ve seen in electronics over the past few years – from the rise of electric vehicles (EVs) to advanced, fast-charging devices – there is an increasing need for better batteries to power these devices. This month, a peer-reviewed article from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden described the development of a multifunctional structural battery made from carbon fibres. 

Understanding the Carbon Fibre Structural Battery: What Is It and Why Do We Need It?

Structural batteries are multifunctional devices that not only store electrical energy but also bear mechanical loads and make up part of the structure of a vehicle or device, like a car, phone, or laptop, thereby reducing the overall weight of the object. This, in turn, reduces the amount of energy needed to power computers and run EVs, leading to more energy-efficient and environmentally sustainable technologies. 

The authors of the paper, published in Advanced Materials, have developed the world’s first all-carbon fibre-based structural battery. The battery uses carbon fibre and lithium iron phosphate-coated carbon fibre as the negative and positive electrodes, respectively, and a thin cellulose structural separator. 

The batteries benefit from the properties of carbon fibre, which is light, strong, and conductive. This means they can match the structural integrity of aluminium while storing enough energy for commercial use. The researchers believe that these batteries have the potential to increase the range of electric vehicles by up to 70% while halving the weight of laptops and allowing mobile phones as thin as credit cards to be developed. 

What’s Next? 

While this advancement holds great promise for the future of EVs and other technologies, further work is needed to achieve mass production and commercialisation, and the researchers are already working on the next steps. 

Ultimately, this research showed that adapting the design of cars or other electronics is critical to increasing battery performance and, importantly, that a lightweight carbon material is the way forward. At TrimTabs, this got us thinking about the potential of carbon nanotube (CNT)-based structural batteries: as this technology improves, increasingly light batteries will likely be required, and CNTs could be the answer! CNTs are every bit as strong as carbon fibre, but they are ten times lighter. This means they pack more energy density per kilogram of weight, which will be critical for further expanding range and power in the development of electric performance cars and aircraft.

This represents an exciting technological development in the world of material science and energy storage, and we can’t wait to see what’s next! Check out the full article, and make sure to stay tuned for our take on more hot-off-the-press news stories.