Naturally, the use of the latter has become widespread, due to the growing popularity of electric cars and the growing share of renewable sources in the energy market. They need to be stored somewhere, and lithium-based batteries are particularly good at this.
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Unfortunately, lithium resources are limited. Although from time to time different countries announce discoveries of new areas containing this element, one day – if the current demand continues – it will simply run out. Moreover, the mining process is associated with environmental degradation and the consumption of huge amounts of water.
That's why scientists are trying to look for alternatives. Some people want to completely give up lithium and use different ingredients instead. Others decide to stick with the proven element, identifying ways they can reduce the amount of element needed to power the batteries.
Batteries with limited use of lithium can result in low extraction of this element
Fortunately, they are not alone in this difficult battle, because they use tools based on artificial intelligence. Thanks to them, as we can read Publications In prototype form, there has been significant progress recently. In total, over the course of their expertise, members of the research team have analyzed more than 32 million potential inorganic substances.
It took 80 hours to leave only 18 candidates from this large group, showing promising properties in the context of creating the batteries of the future. Then it was time for more practical tests, after which only one competitor remained on the battlefield. It is about electricity, which may become an integral part of the batteries used by later generations.
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For a long time, it was believed that sodium ions and lithium ions could not be used together in a single semiconductor electrolyte system. This was supposed to be due to their chemical properties, but the AI suggested a completely opposite alternative. It was assumed that the creation of such materials would be possible, and the experiments carried out confirmed this. Because the innovative electrolyte uses lithium, sodium and many other elements, the amount of lithium needed to operate the battery efficiently is reduced by up to 70 percent.
As a result, there is more than one reason to be happy. We are talking about using artificial intelligence to carry out tasks that would be very challenging for humans. In addition, there is an option to introduce real changes regarding the use of lithium in battery production. For now, we have to wait for confirmation of the current reveal.
