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SGTLuxembourg t1_is1f7y3 wrote

Reply to comment by ElephantsAreHeavy in South Korean researchers say they have developed an anode-free lithium-ion battery that is 40% more energy dense than existing batteries and will enable EVs to travel 630km (390 miles) on a single charge. by lughnasadh

It’s bad branding but essentially a lithium anode would be a metal film on a copper foil. As you charge the battery Li from the cathode would plate in the existing lithium which acts as a reservoir to compensate for any lost capacity due to natural aging. In an anode free configuration there is zero initial lithium, just bare copper (maybe with a coating or some other modification but the key detail is zero initial lithium on the anode. That is the primary source of gravimetric capacity increases in “anode free” cells since you can remove the weight of the lithium reservoir. This requires extremely high coulombic efficiency since there is nothing to compensate for any lost lithium.

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ElephantsAreHeavy t1_is1lft1 wrote

A lithium-free anode is someting completely different from a anode-free battery.

I just wanted to point out the ridiculousness of what is written. You are absolutely correct in the explanation, but their wording is still wrong.

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SGTLuxembourg t1_is28wns wrote

Yeah definitely, in the research community I am a part of we try to say “lithium-free” rather than anode-free but the later is more common in the literature. Even then it isn’t lithium free always just at assembly (and theoretically at 100% discharge if everything is behaving ideally).

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