Good news! However, this seems to be very early stage technology. I am not so sure about molten salt, elevated temperature (above the boiling point of water) ...
"Engineers at MIT have developed a new battery design using common materials – aluminum, sulfur and salt. Not only is the battery low-cost, but it’s resistant to fire and failures, and can be charged very fast, which could make it useful for powering a home or charging electric vehicles. ...
After a search and some trial and error, they settled on aluminum for one electrode and sulfur for the other, topped off with an electrolyte of molten chloro-aluminate salt. ...
They can not only operate at high temperatures of up to 200 °C (392 °F) but they actually work better when hotter – at 110 °C (230 °F), the batteries charged 25 times faster than they did at 25 °C (77 °F). Importantly, the researchers say the battery doesn’t need any external energy to reach this elevated temperature – its usual cycle of charging and discharging is enough to keep it that warm. ..."
After a search and some trial and error, they settled on aluminum for one electrode and sulfur for the other, topped off with an electrolyte of molten chloro-aluminate salt. ...
They can not only operate at high temperatures of up to 200 °C (392 °F) but they actually work better when hotter – at 110 °C (230 °F), the batteries charged 25 times faster than they did at 25 °C (77 °F). Importantly, the researchers say the battery doesn’t need any external energy to reach this elevated temperature – its usual cycle of charging and discharging is enough to keep it that warm. ..."
From the abstract:
"Although batteries fitted with a metal negative electrode are attractive for their higher energy density and lower complexity, the latter making them more easily recyclable, the threat of cell shorting by dendrites has stalled deployment of the technology. Here we disclose a bidirectional, rapidly charging aluminium–chalcogen battery operating with a molten-salt electrolyte composed of NaCl–KCl–AlCl3. ... to form the foundation for high-rate charging of the battery. This chemistry is distinguished from other aluminium batteries in the choice of a positive elemental-chalcogen electrode as opposed to various low-capacity compound formulations, and in the choice of a molten-salt electrolyte as opposed to room-temperature ionic liquids that induce high polarization. We show that the multi-step conversion pathway between aluminium and chalcogen allows rapid charging at up to 200C, and the battery endures hundreds of cycles at very high charging rates without aluminium dendrite formation. Importantly for scalability, the cell-level cost of the aluminium–sulfur battery is projected to be less than one-sixth that of current lithium-ion technologies. Composed of earth-abundant elements that can be ethically sourced and operated at moderately elevated temperatures just above the boiling point of water, this chemistry has all the requisites of a low-cost, rechargeable, fire-resistant, recyclable battery."
A new concept for low-cost batteries Made from inexpensive, abundant materials, an aluminum-sulfur battery could provide low-cost backup storage for renewable energy sources.
Fast-charging aluminium–chalcogen batteries resistant to dendritic shorting (no public access)
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