2024-01-11 14:36:33
The lithium battery is causing environmental damage in specific areas of the world. (Illustrative image Infobae)
Microsoft unveiled a discovery that could change the battery industry. In collaboration with the US Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), the company used artificial intelligence to develop a new material that promises to reduce dependence on lithium in batteries.
This component is present in most current devices, although it is a limited resource that is currently only being produced by countries such as Australia, Chile, China and Argentina. Additionally, its use in batteries has been linked to environmental and safety concerns.
Global demand for lithium is expected to double by 2028, driven primarily by the growth of the electric mobility market, posing challenges in terms of sustainability and availability.
In response to this problem, the company has developed a new battery material that is not only efficient and safe, but also significantly reduces dependence on the material that is present in most batteries today.
This project has resulted in a solid-state electrolyte composed of lithium, sodium and other chemical elements, capable of reducing the lithium content in batteries by up to 70%.
The company found a combination of components that allows improving battery manufacturing. (Microsoft)
Microsoft has leveraged its artificial intelligence technology, specifically with its Azure Quantum Elements product, to accelerate the discovery of this development. Instead of relying on traditional methods that could take decades, AI algorithms digitally examined more than 32 million potential materials in just 80 hours.
This approach identified more than 500,000 stable candidates, improving the path to choosing the right components and performing tests.
Collaboration with the PNNL has been key in this phase of the project. Working together with this laboratory allowed Microsoft to test not only known materials, but also to discover a completely new one, previously unknown and not present in nature.
This material, in the form of a solid-state electrolyte, has proven capable of successfully powering a prototype battery, giving options to reduce dependence on lithium in the near future.
The lithium battery is causing environmental damage in specific areas of the world. (Illustrative image Infobae)
Vijay Murugesan, leader of the research for PNNL, highlights concerns about finite resources and the geographical concentration of elements, including lithium. The extraction of this component has been associated with environmental problems and its scarcity in the market poses challenges for the expansion of battery technology.
“One of the main axes of our work at PNNL has been the identification of new materials for the growing energy storage needs of the future; “sustainable materials that conserve and protect the Earth’s limited resources,” said Murugesan, in statements published on the official Microsoft blog.
This achievement not only represents a technological advance to improve battery manufacturing conditions, but also shows the potential of artificial intelligence within scientific discoveries.
On its official blog, Microsoft highlights this discovery as the “first real example” of what will be a series of achievements in this new era: the ability of AI to process large amounts of data and propose innovative solutions in a matter of hours, in instead of weeks or years.
Although the battery prototype has proven successful in powering a light bulb, the researchers are aware that they still have much more work to do.
Industrial-scale testing and continued evaluation of the new solid-state electrolyte is critical before this technology can be widely deployed, so it’s unclear when we might see this new component inside a device.
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