A Nitrate Biosensor for Monitoring Groundwater at DOE Sites

65659 Meso carbon micro beads (MCMB) produce the best performing anode for lithium-ion batteries, but their expense limits the wide spread use of these batteries. The MCMB expense results from the use of an expensive synthetic mesophase pitch plus extensive processing. Other forms of carbon for the anode result in poor battery performance. This project will develop technology for the economic processing of low cost pitches to produce mesophase material that can be transformed to MCMB at the low-cost price of approximately $1/kg. In Phase I, low cost pitches will be converted to mesophase from which MCMB will be produced, heat-treated, and fabricated into anodes for testing in lithium-ion half cells. Commercial Applications And Other Benefits as described by awardee: Low cost lithium-ion batteries with improved performance would have wide spread applications in hand-held electronics, electric vehicles of all types, and a variety of defense and commercial applications for secondary batteries