The future of high energy density batteries | Hard Reset

Just pinning responses and clarifications to technical questions here because the comment got a bit buried. It's in the thread with @SwuuschifyMe below and we encourage you to read the full and thought-provoking discussion if you're interested! For what it's worth, we shared this video with the folks at Argonne before releasing it to check for accuracy, and they had no edits or corrections. 3:15 Lithium scarcity is more complex than just how common the element is within the earth’s crust - it’s also a question of how easy, affordable, and sustainable it is to obtain that element. Beyond the pure practicalities of getting our hands on more lithium atoms, there are also the regulatory and geopolitical implications, as well as the complexities of refining lithium. All of these factors contribute to lithium's scarcity relative to the demand for it. We’re not the only ones who feel this way, and many people predict we could see shortages in the next few years: www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/07/electric-vehicles-w… To be clear, we don’t think lithium will go away as a key component of some batteries, but many researchers (some in this video!) are very keen to explore alternatives that are more affordable and sustainable to obtain and would offer additional benefits. In the future we think there will likely be a lot of different battery chemistries, including many that rely on lithium. 3:25 There is a difference between an electrolyte and the ions dissolved within it, but we felt that it might be splitting hairs to disambiguate between them in this video — especially since many electrolytes (like lithium hexafluorophosphate) do contain lithium. This is the same approach many folks seem to take when describing lithium’s role within a battery, including experts we consulted with, for the sake of simplicity. In retrospect we can see how the wording could be better! 3:55 On the various weights of zinc and magnesium relative to lithium: we’re referring to the energy density in terms of volume. We also understand that some of these chemistries would be heavier and therefore less suitable for certain applications, that’s also something that Dr. Venkat Srinivasan addresses in the video when he talks about the different constraints that various batteries will need to work within for different applications. The size, safety, and charging requirements will be very different for a grid battery, as compared to something like a battery for a mobile device or vehicle. 4:30 There are other synchrotron facilities, we don’t mean to imply that there aren’t. Argonne is a unique place that brings together a lot of specialists in the field of next generation battery technology, and provides them with on-site access to a powerful resource like the Advanced Photon Source on site, which we feel makes it one of a kind. 5:50 Also — we weren’t actually worried that the lithium would explode because of a humid environment. But lithium does have a reputation for reacting to water in pretty stunning ways (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vxqe_ZOwsHs) and our voiceover often takes a playful approach to these sorts of things!

I am a battery researcher just like our guests here, in fact I sometimes come to Argonne for similar experiments... there's problems here 3:15 Lithium scarcity is BS. It's one of the most common elements in the crust and if you had looked, you would have found that it is not a problem. What's the material scarcity of today's batteries? Well it's Cobalt, mostly. 3:25 Lithium is not the electrolyte...the electrolyte facilitates the transport of Lithium ions. A pretty fundamental thing to mix up 3:55 2-3 times of what? There is a place for Zinc and Mg batteries but they also have fundamental downsides, for example Zn batteries are heavy af (10 times heavier than Lithium) and therefore mostly useful if space is an issue, for example it would be a good grid storage option if aqeuous (water based) Zn batteries would work out. 4:30 Argonne is definitely not the only place where they do this. It's called a synchrotron facility, and there's five big ones in the US alone where they all do this. And there's dozens all over the world. 5:50 Lithium doesn't explode. It doesn't even catch fire if you throw it in water. It's the least reactive Alkali metal. They have a dry room because oxidized Lithium is useless in a battery, and Lithium reacts much faster with water than with just oxygen. Appreciate the skillful narration but there's a lot of fundamentally wrong statements in here, too. Did the scientists that appear here get to see this video before release?

LMAO @ the Sega Game Gear comment... "Mom, I need more batteries - I want to play for another 6 minutes."

The slow progress towards “the perfect battery” is the ultimate proof that we have not been visited by aliens; and in particular, that said aliens have not “given us their advanced technology.” Because if they did we would long ago have had fantastic batteries. All praise to the consistent dedication and hard work by generations of scientists and engineers.

Round of applause to the person who made this video. So many meme references. On point. This video is informative as well as entertaining. World need more of these.

I love the subtle humour between the narrator and the information. It’s all so nicely woven. Such a great video style.

The fact that we’ve been using single-use disposable batteries for our devices is insane. Most small-scale batteries are now available as rechargeable USB-C/Micro-USB. This is an immense money-saver, let alone waste-reducer.

the memes the animation, the research, just finished the video, keep up the good work. It looks like you will need to add more info in future videos, so it doesnt driple into the comments.

Are you sure lithium ion batteries use lithium as an electrolyte? I always thought it was either the anode or cathode. 3:25

This is great! The way out of our current situation is not all these cut backs and taxes but INNOVATION... because these innovations can be picked up by countries that are still developing and have huge populations e.g., China and India and Brazil... who are not imposing taxes and cut-backs...

I'm excited about the future of Aluminum Air batteries... Imagine the 100% recyclable battery!

Waiting for the Thunderfoot video to come.. magic words: batteries, 2-3 times the energy density

The sad part is education at primarily level always tells that it's difficult and costly to store electricity and the guy who challenges this difficult is the real hero ...

No more burning something for energy? There goes the Fireplace Channel.

This is very good editing and scripting. It was simultaneously informative, yet entertaining which is not always easy to do.

I really hope that there are research about materials for fire resistant batteries to alleviate accidents caused by battery explosion. Apparently, it is hard to stop the fire produced from battery.

You had me dying at Bat communicator.

Just to confirm i subscribed to the channel, because I like the content very much.

Engineers have to be honest, any dishonesty stifles progress: Note he said, “Renewables are the cheapest generators of electricity”. Plus transmission, plus storage and they are no longer the cheapest form of energy.

I laughed a little more than I would in a Freethink video Great content