A new experiment on electric cars has revealed the use of thermal blankets promises to make batteries last longer.
According to the British newspaper, the cloak is the brainchild of researchers from Shanghai Jiao Tong University and is designed to keep electric cars cool in the summer and warm in the winter.
The thermal blanket performs its function without the need for any external energy input, said Dr. Ki Hongqi, the lead researcher of the study. The thermal blanket is similar to the covering of vehicles, buildings, spaceships, and extraterrestrial habitats that stay cool in summer and warm in winter.
The performance of electric cars suffers in extreme cold because the batteries do not work properly when the temperature drops below zero degrees Celsius, The lithium-ion batteries in most modern electric cars rely on chemical reactions to store and release electricity, but this process slows down when they get cold.
Engineers at General Electric charging company Osprey say that the temperature of electric vehicle batteries is 20 to 25 degrees Celsius. When the weather is hot, the electric charge stock of the batteries is negatively affected because it greatly interferes with the chemical reactions and energy transfer in the battery.
A thermal blanket designed to reduce the effects of natural temperature fluctuations, the researchers say, has two main components, an outer layer that reflects sunlight and an inner layer that helps keep heat inside.
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With this thermal blanket, the vehicles were covered at night but their temperature never dropped below zero, Dr. Cui said. For the first time, it was possible to achieve a temperature of about 7 degrees Celsius higher than the ambient temperature during winter nights. The researchers said that we could increase the percentage of battery life or save the amount of electrical energy.
