Scientists from the U.S. Army and the University of Maryland have developed a water electrolyte that might lead to the development of a nonflammable, aqueous lithium battery, the Army reported Monday.Researchers at the Army Research Laboratory and the university conducted experiments on aqueous batteries and found that the use of high concentrations of salt resulted in the development of a new lithium fluoride layer that is similar to the coating of traditional lithium ion batteries.
“The main problem with lithium ion batteries has always been safety,” said Arthur Von Wald Cresce, a materials scientist at ARL.
“What we’re trying to do is to make sure that the battery remains safe, it remains nonflammable, but that we get as much capacity out of the battery as possible.”
Scientists have started to explore the interaction between the aqueous electrolyte and the negative electrode and plan to identify other anode materials that could be used in succeeding experiments, Cresce added.
