Solid-state batteries: The technology that could make flying safer

Source Domain: www.jpost.com

Last October, an Air China flight on its way to Seoul was forced to make an emergency landing in Shanghai after a fire broke out in one of the storage compartments due to an igniting lithium-ion battery. In April, a recall of over 400,000 batteries from a company called “Casely” was announced following reports of batteries catching fire on planes as well, and just recently– five passengers on a flight of the Indian company “IndiGo” were injured by smoke inhalation as a result of a portable battery that exploded and filled the cabin with smoke.

It is not for nothing that airlines around the world decided to limit the use of external batteries based on lithium-ion and lithium-polymer, since if one of these explodes or ignites, it is a real risk to the flight.

The problem lies in the chemical structure of lithium-ion batteries, the battery technology that powers the entire modern world from smartphones, through laptops, to electric cars and everything in between: The batteries are based on an electrolytic liquid, and lithium is integrated into the rods that generate the electrical reaction (anode and cathode), while lithium has an annoying trait: It ignites when it comes into contact with oxygen, meaning, it ignites upon contact with air. As long as the battery pack is intact and the lithium is separated from the external environment, everything is fine. However, the moment the smallest crack or puncture is formed as a result of distortion from heat, an impact, fracture, or puncturing of the pack – boom. The lithium will catch fire and the battery may explode. And this, is a big problem when it happens inside a tin box flying at an altitude of 10,000 feet.

However, a technological solution has been found for this problem as well, which is considered the holy grail of the industry, and in fact, one of the inventors of the lithium-ion battery worked on solving this problem until his dying day: Solid-state batteries, or Solid State Battery, in English. In these…

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