Because energy is one of the most important quantities, there are many energy units which often creates confusion. Throughout this book, we used the SI units for all physical quantities. The SI unit of energy is joule, defined as the energy capable of pushing an object with one newton of force by one meter: J […]

According to the Energy Information Administration, in the United States, transporta­tion uses 26.5% of the total energy, or 67.6% of the petroleum. To reduce the use of fossil energy, the transition to electric cars using rechargeable batteries, especially using Li ion batteries as storage medium and solar energy as the source, is the best approach. […]

As Li ion batteries become a major component of automobiles in the future, the problem of the mineral resource of lithium is currently of interest. First, let us estimate how much lithium is needed to equip all the automobiles in the world, and then compare it with the known mineral resources. The atomic weight of […]

Currently the lithium ion battery is the most rapidly developing energy storage device. Soon after its invention in 1991, the CoO2-Li ion battery became the predominant power source for small portable electronics such as mobile phones, digital cameras, and laptop computers. It is widely believed to be the best candidate for powering automobiles because it […]

In recent decades, nickel metal hydride rechargeable batteries have been widely used in automobiles and relatively large portable electronic devices. The positive electrode is nickel hydroxide, and the negative electrode is an intermetallic compound. The most common metal has the general form AB5, where A is a mixture of rare earth elements, lanthanum, cerium, neodymium, […]

To date, the most widely used rechargeable battery is the lead-acid battery. Every automobile should have one with six cells. For a fully charged lead-acid battery, the positive electrode is made of PbO2 and the negative electrode is made of pure lead. The electrolyte is diluted sulfuric acid. After discharging, both the positive electrode and […]

The basic structure and the charging-discharging processes of rechargeable batteries are shown in Fig. 12.7. For reference, definitions are provided as below. For more details, see, for example, Handbook of Batteries [51]. Cell The basic electrochemical unit converting electrochemical energy to electrical energy. Battery One or more electrochemical cells connected in series or parallel to […]

In the last decades, the technology of rechargeable batteries has observed a phenomenal expansion. To date, the century-old lead-acid rechargeable battery has been constantly improved and is still in widespread use. New types of batteries, especially lithium ion rechargeable batteries, are experiencing an explosive growth, and will soon become the dominating distributed storage device for […]