New Thermal Cloak Extends Battery Life for Electric Vehicles: A Game Changer for EV Drivers

Born from an idea of ​​Chinese researchers

According to what was published by the British “Daily Mail”, the cloak is the brainchild of researchers at the Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and is designed to maintain the auto electrically cool in summer and warm in winter. It should be noted that the coat performs its function without the need for any external energy input.

The effect of high and low temperatures

It is known that the performance of auto electricity are affected in extreme cold conditions, because the batteries work in less efficiently when temperatures drop to zero and under zero degrees Celsius.

Lithium-ion batteries in most modern auto batteries rely on a chemical reaction to store and release electricity, but as it gets colder the process slows down and therefore limits battery performance, leading to a significant loss of usable charge range.

Ideal temperature

As engineers at general electric charging company Osprey explain, electric vehicle batteries have an ideal temperature of 20-25 degrees Celsius.

The electrical charge stock of batteries in warmer weather is adversely affected because it greatly interferes with the chemical reaction and energy transfer in the battery. So, the researchers designed a thermal mantle able to dampen natural temperature fluctuations.

Silica fibers and aluminum alloys

Dubbed the Janus Thermal Cloak, the cloak has two main components: an outer layer that reflects sunlight and an inner layer that helps trap heat inside. The outer layer consists of fine silica fibers coated with flakes of hexagonal boron nitride, a ceramic-like material. The fibers are twisted and woven together in a fabric, before being bonded to the inner layer of aluminum alloy.

Exceptional efficacy

To evaluate the effectiveness of the thermal mantle, the team of researchers conducted their own experiments on electric vehicles parked outdoors in Shanghai: a auto discovery whose cabin temperature reached 50.5 degrees Celsius at noon. But when the thermal mantle was placed on the auto, the temperature inside the passenger compartment stopped at 22.8°C, 27.7°C less.

In the middle of the night, the temperature of the auto covered by the thermal mantle never dropped below 0°C, 6.8°C more than the external one.

Heating without power

“For the first time, warming of about 7 degrees Celsius above room temperature can be achieved during winter nights, and surprisingly, there is no energy input or sunlight and warming can still be caused,” he said. stated Dr. Which.

Real world applications

The team of researchers say the thermal mantle is specially designed to make it easier to scale up production in the future and they are in the course of testing and large-scale field analysis to translate thermal mantle metrics and performance into real economic benefits, such as the percentage of battery life we can increase or the amount of electricity that would be saved annually if the use of the thermal blanket were extended to vehicles and buildings.

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