Lithium battery inventor John Goodenough recently made another discovery in the same field, this time developing the first all solid state battery cells, which have been reportedly made out of glass. The breakthrough caught the attention of industry tycoons including Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt, who called the battery’s claims “promising”.
‘Next Generation’ Battery
The 94-year old inventor and his research team coming from the University of Texas and the University of Porto concluded that the new generation of batteries may be made entirely from glass as stated in the paper published in the U.K Royal Society of Chemistry.
According to the research, the next generation batteries hold the capability to store and transmit energy at temperatures lower than the traditional lithium-ion packs used and can be made using huge amounts of sodium anywhere in the world.
Goodenough, who spent his life focusing on storage technologies, also claims that the new battery cells hold the three times the energy density compared to his first lithium battery version. He is also known for also considering the global oil crisis when it comes to his research and experiments.
Climate Change Friendly Energy
The discovery also addresses the current need for less fossil fuel consumption that is necessary for the fight against climate change. Currently, Goodenough and his team are working on different kind of patents for the battery that will work with different companies that use batteries with their products.
The team is also looking for collaborators from other battery makers and developers to aid in the improvement and testing of their batteries in different types of devices and even electric vehicles.
Although the battery has yet to actually come out of the laboratory, Goodenough stated that he and his team strongly believes in the problems that can be solved by the breakthrough and can address a number of other factors, including costing, energy density, rates, and safety are still being taken into consideration before it can be tried on electric vehicles.
Any success with the tests will result in batteries that not only cost less but will help the need to promote more sustainable energy where automobile companies such as Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) and Volkswagen (DE:VOWG_p) have tried to make their own breakthroughs in creating lithium-ion batteries for more sustainable vehicles.