More Energy with iron and carbon

By comparison, gasoline stores around nine kilowatt hours per kilogramme. Researchers at the KIT Institute of Nanotechnology have now developed a special synthetic process to produce highly efficient iron-carbon storage materials. Their aim is to increase storage density by as much as five times. In this process, which is currently the subject of a patent application, different starting materials are mixed with a lithium salt and heated to produce a completely new nanostructure that is infused with carbon wire. This new material achieves an energy density double that of conventional battery materials. Scientists are continuing to develop and investigate the process at the Ulm Helmholtz Institute for Electrochemical Energy Storage, a new research facility founded and sponsored by the KIT in collaboration with Ulm University.

Saskia Kutscheidt