Skip to content
  • Career
  • Phone book
  • Events
  • MLZ Webpage
  • MLZ User Office
  • Webmail (internal)
  • Webmail ("Betrieb")
  • Intranet
  • de
  • en
  • Research Neutron Source Heinz Maier-Leibnitz (FRM II)
  • Technical University of Munich
Technical University of Munich
  • Home
  • About us
    • From "Atomic Egg" to FRM II
    • Facts & Figures
      • Auftragsvergaben
    • News & Media
      • News article
      • Films
        • Interactive panorama
      • Brochures
        • Annual Reports
        • Newsletter
      • Events
        • Open day 2024
    • Contact
  • The Neutron Source
    • Neutrons
    • Fuel elements
      • Life cycle of a fuel element
      • Disposal of fuel elements
        • FRM II fuel element
        • Storage in Ahaus
        • Secure packaging
        • Transport vehicle
        • Permits
        • Function test
        • FAQ
      • Conversion
        • What does the conversion entail
        • Objectives of the conversion
        • Who is working on the conversion?
        • Fact check
    • Reactor
      • Installations in the pool
      • Guiding the beams
        • Cooling circuits
    • Irradiation facilities
      • Rabbit Irradiation
      • Capsule Irradiation
      • Mechanical Irradiation
      • Irradiation Position in the Control Rod
      • Irradiation with fast neutrons
      • Future Mo-99 irradiation facility
    • Safety
  • Safe all round
    • Protection of persons
    • Monitoring the facility
    • Monitoring the environment
      • Discharge of C-14
  • Research
  • Medicine
    • Radioisotopes for diagnostics
    • Radioisotopes for therapy
    • Tumor irradiation
  • Industry
    • Materialanalyse
      • TUM-Expertenforen
      • VDI Fachausschuss 101
        • Bildgebende Verfahren
        • Optische Messverfahren
        • Eigenspannungs- und Texturanalyse
        • Analytik
      • Analysis with neutrons
    • Radioisotopes for industry
    • Silicon doping
  • Career
  • Guided Tours
  1. Home
  2. About us
  3. News & Media
  4. Press Releases

Press releases

Neutrons peer into the heart of a rechargeable battery for hybrid locomotives

Aktuell, Wissenschaft, Industrie, ANTARES, STRESS-SPEC, Pressemitteilung | 15.04.2010

Rechargeable batteries may soon provide greater energy efficiency not only for road traffic, but also for rail transport.

Dr. Michael Hofmann using the residual stress and texture diffractometer STRESS-SPEC to study batteries. © Dr. Ralph Gilles / TU München

Scientists at the research neutron source FRM II of the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM) are taking a closer look at a high performance rechargeable battery for future hybrid locomotives. The battery manufactured by General Electric (GE) is a sodium/iron chloride battery. The study reveals the distribution of chemical substances within the battery during various states of charge.

Physicists and chemists at FRM II screened a half-discharged and a fully discharged General Electric battery cell using an instrument known as ANTARES (Advanced Neutron Tomography and Radiography Experimental System). The system uses neutrons to non-destructively peer deep inside objects. The other alternative, cutting open the battery, would have allowed moisture and air to enter, thereby possibly influencing the highly reactive contents. Making use of radiography, the scientists were able to visualize the level of sodium in the unopened battery.

Using a second instrument at TUM’s neutron source, the residual stress and texture diffractometer STRESS-SPEC, the scientists analyzed the exact composition of chemical substances within the cell. Each of the various materials in the battery reacts differently to the neutron radiation, thereby emitting unambiguous signals. In this way the scientists were able to determine the precise reactant distribution within the cell. This is important in establishing how the battery can be charged and discharged as often as possible.

The General Electric batteries are designed for energy savings of at least ten percent. Up to 10,000 of these 2.33 Volt batteries will provide hybrid locomotives with 2000 horsepower. Unlike the lead batteries currently used in motor vehicles, sodium/iron chloride batteries provide not only more than twice the power density, they also have very high performance, as required by locomotives. A further advantage of the batteries tested at FRM II: Unlike the lithium required for lithium batteries, sodium is readily available in nature in the form of sodium chloride, plain cooking salt.

Together with the FRM II, GE is planning to use neutrons in a real-time analysis of the charging and discharging cycles of batteries to determine with even greater precision the distribution of sodium and other substances within the batteries.


◄ Back to: Press Releases
To top
  • Privacy
  • Imprint
  • Accessibility