Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
With new methods from AQua, the quality of the electrode coating can be checked automatically. (Photo: Irina Westermann, KIT)
Powerful, durable, and safe: these properties, combined with a low price, could soon secure batteries “Made in Germany” a place among the best in the world. This will be realized by including advanced approaches to quality assurance and analytics in production, which are now being developed and tested at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). The activities in the AQua battery research cluster are carried out in close cooperation with research partners in the “Battery research factory” initiated by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
Tungsten component produced by 3D printing using electron beam melting. (Photo: Markus Breig, KIT)
Tungsten has the highest melting point of all metals, 3,422 degrees Celsius. This makes the material ideal for use at high temperatures in e.g. space rocket nozzles, heating elements of high-temperature furnaces, or the fusion reactor. However, the metal is highly brittle and, hence, difficult to process. Researchers of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have developed an innovative approach to making this brittle material soft. To process tungsten, they have determined new process parameters for electron beam melting.
Tungsten is a metal with very attractive properties: It is corrosion-resistant and as heavy as gold. In the form of tungsten carbide, it is as hard as diamond. And it has the highest melting point of all metals, 3,422 degrees Celsius. However, the metal is highly brittle at room temperature. Due to its properties, tungsten is dif
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IMAGE: Better understanding of the lifecycle accelerates the development of long-lasting, recyclable, and safe lithium-ion batteries. view more
Credit: (Photo: Laila Tkotz, KIT)
Recycling and optimized resource cycles, second use, and knowledge-based cell design are expected to enhance sustainability and safety of lithium-ion batteries in future. The basis is now provided by process engineers and materials scientists of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), who jointly study the battery lifecycle. The new research projects are carried out within the battery research clusters greenBatt and BattNutzung funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).
Battery cells of constant high performance can considerably reduce the ecological footprint of applications, such as electric mobility. In addition, second use of such cells is considered, e.g. in large networks of storage systems. But not all cells are suited for such second-life scenarios.