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Who Killed the Electric Car?

A battery is made up of one or more cells. Each cell consists of a negative electrode and a positive electrode kept apart by a separator soaked in a conductive electrolyte that allows ions, but not electrons, to travel between them. When a battery is connected to a load, a chemical reaction begins. As positively charged ions travel from the negative to the positive electrode through the electrolyte, a proportional number of negatively charged electrons must make the same journey through an external circuit, resulting in an electric current.

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This repeated gain and loss of lithium ions causes a continual expansion and contraction that eventually degrades the cathode's layers. Now A123, a company in Watertown, Massachusetts, has found a way to make the cathode more durable, using a material called lithium iron phosphate in place of the delicate lithium cobalt dioxide. A123's lithium iron phosphate cathode has a birdcage-like nanostructure that allows lithium ions to enter and exit without causing damaging expansion and contraction.

The cobalt oxide electrodes release oxygen at low temperatures which may cause reactions within the battery and lead to an explosion. By replacing them with iron phosphate electrodes this occurrence is less likely because it clings to oxygen at much higher temperatures. Iron is also cheaper!

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