Excerpt from mining.com
A team of scientists at the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST) have developed an approach to anode fabrication that could lead to extremely fast-charging lithium-ion batteries (LIBs).
In a paper published in the journal Chemical Communications, the researchers explain that their strategy constitutes a relatively simple, environmentally sound, and efficient way to produce a carbon-based anode with very high nitrogen content.
It is already known that one way to shorten the charging time of LIBs is to increase the diffusion rate of lithium ions, which in turn can be done by increasing the interlayer distance in the carbon-based materials used in the battery’s anode. This has been achieved with some success by introducing nitrogen impurities, which are technically referred to as nitrogen doping. However, there is no method easily available to control interlayer distance or to concentrate the doping element.
To address this issue, the Japanese group used poly (benzimidazole), a bio-based polymer that can be synthesized from raw materials of biological origin as the precursor material for the anode.