My Battery Won’t Blow Up. It’s Gellin’

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

We think of gel inserts as something to absorb energy in shoes, and their uses extend into saddle cushions and protective seat pads for racing drivers.  Researchers in South Korea, however, are looking at ways to transfer ions through gelatins similar to those used in Japanese food. Konnyaku is a vegan gelatin often used to make stretchy noodles popular in Japanese cooking.  A similar organic gel (organogel) can be used in electrolytes with “high ionic conductivity and cationic transference number,” according to a research team at Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), South Korea. Professors Hyun-Kon Song and Noejung Park of UNIST and their fellow researchers have developed an organogel polymer electrolyte that looks like clear Jello® and which could solve problems presented by liquid electrolytes.  Their electrolyte gels irreversibly despite surrounding temperatures, and passes lithium ions easily. Stability during thermal events might have prevented recent battery fires on the Boeing 787, according to Song and Park.  The …