Thursday 13 January 2022

Inflation 1982. Oh Canada!

 Baltic Dry Index. 2027 -124   Brent Crude 84.38

Spot Gold 1827

Coronavirus Cases 02/04/20 World 1,000,000

Deaths 53,100

Coronavirus Cases 13/01/22 World 317,669,595

Deaths 5,531,149

You look up and down the bench and you have to say to yourself, 'Can't anybody here play this game?'

Casey Stengel.

In the USA it may be inflation 1982 again, with the Fed promising to tighten by phasing out their bond purchases before raising interest rates starting in March, but few in the stock casinos believe they will actually dare to turn President Biden into a one term President. 

The Russia – NATO talks over the Ukraine apparently went badly, at least according to the Russian press conference, but no one and their dog expects war.

In Canada, the left hand moves opposite to the right hand. 

China’s Covid-19 lockdown strategy seems to be failing to contain omicron.

Asia-Pacific markets mixed; Chinese developer Sunac’s shares fall 15% after share sale plan

SINGAPORE — Asia-Pacific markets were mixed on Thursday as Wall Street saw gains despite a red-hot inflation report that set market expectations for rate hikes. Meanwhile, Covid worries also came into focus as the World Health Organization warned that omicron cases are “off the charts.”

Japan led losses in the region, as the Nikkei 225 fell 0.8% after jumping nearly 2% on Wednesday, while the Topix lost 0.49%. Major retailers lost ground, as Seven & I fell 3.68%, and Fast Retailing lost 1.53%.

Over in South Korea, the Kospi was down 0.15%.

The Shanghai composite was flat, while the Shenzhen component fell 0.77%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index bucked the trend, rising 0.26%.

However, shares of Chinese property developer Sunac tumbled more than 15% after it said in a filing that it plans to sell 452 million new shares to controlling shareholder Sunac International Investment Holdings at 10 Hong Kong dollars per share.

That will raise 4.52 billion Hong Kong dollars ($580 million), with the firm saying that 50% of the proceeds from the sale will go towards repaying loans, while the other half will be for other corporate purposes.

Elsewhere, Australia’s ASX 200 rose 0.64%. Financials and major miners saw gains. Rio Tinto jumped 3%, while BHP was up 4%.

----Investors will also keep an eye on Covid developments, as the World Health Organization reported a record 15 million new Covid-19 cases globally for a single week, as omicron rapidly replaces delta as the dominant variant across the globe.

Red hot inflation in focus

Data on Wednesday showed that inflation in the U.S. rose 7% during December, the highest since 1982. However, stocks rose despite that report.

The S&P 500 added roughly 0.28% to 4,726.35, and the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.23% to 15,188.39 for its third straight positive day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which shuffled between modest gains and losses through the session, finished with a gain of 38.3 points, or 0.11%, at 36,290.32.

That inflation data, which comes amid already-rising prices in recent months, set the stage for a case for hiking rates, said ANZ Research analysts Brian Martin & Daniel Hynes said in a Thursday note.

“US CPI inflation hits 7.0% y/y in December and is likely to be in the 7–8% range for several months yet – reinforcing the need for interest rate hikes by the Fed, starting in March,” they wrote. “Capping inflation is the Fed’s key priority for 2022.”

More

 

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/13/asia-pacific-stocks-us-inflation-covid-omicron-cases-currencies.html

German trade body warns of huge supply chain disruption over Omicron

BERLIN, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Germany's BGA trade association warned on Wednesday of massive supply chain disruptions due to the rapid spread of the highly infectious Omicron variant of the coronarvirus, but said a long-term collapse of the supply chains was unlikely.

German industry has been hit by supply shortages of microchips and other components, while rising coronavirus cases are clouding the outlook for retailers at the start of 2022.

"There is no risk of collapse, but of a massive disruption of the supply chain - at least temporarily," BGA President Dirk Jandura was quoted by Funke newspaper group as saying.

----Omicron now accounts for more than 44% of coronavirus infections in Germany, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious disease has said. Germany reported 45,690 cases on Tuesday, 49.5% more than on the same day a week ago.

Concerns that the new variant could bring critical services to a halt prompted the German government to tighten the rules for restaurant and bar visits and to shorten COVID-19 quarantine periods.

Germany's Chamber of Commerce (DIHK) welcomed the new isolation regulations but said it was concerned about a growing number of infections in the logistics sector, which is already suffering from staff shortages, and warned of consequences for food retail and medical production sectors.

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/german-trade-body-warns-huge-supply-chain-disruption-over-omicron-2022-01-12/

Next, Oh Canada. 

As Quebec proposes to start punitive taxation of their hapless unvaccinated population, Canada’s Federal government goes into reverse.

Contrast with the USA.

Canada drops vaccine mandate for its truckers after pressure from industry

Jan 12 (Reuters) - Canada will allow unvaccinated Canadian truckers to cross in from the United States, reversing a decision requiring all truckers to be inoculated against the coronavirus, Canada's border agency said on Wednesday.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had faced pressure from the main opposition party and trucking lobby to drop the vaccine mandate for truckers, due to come into force on Saturday, saying it could result in driver shortages, disrupt trade and drive up inflation.

The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) said that unvaccinated, or partially vaccinated Canadian truck drivers arriving at the U.S.-Canada border will remain exempt from pre-arrival, arrival and post-arrival testing and quarantine requirements.

However, truckers from the United States will still need to be vaccinated or they will be turned back at the border from Jan. 15, a CBSA spokesperson said.

A Canadian government source said the decision was taken to ensure smooth supply chains.

Trudeau's Liberal government had set the Saturday deadline requiring all truckers entering from the United States to show proof of vaccination as part of its fight against COVID-19.

With more than two-thirds of the C$650 billion ($511 billion) in goods traded annually between Canada and the United States travelling on roads, the trucking industry is key.

The Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA) had estimated the government mandate could force some 16,000 cross-border drivers - 10 % of them - off the roads.

More

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/canadian-truckers-stay-exempt-covid-19-vaccine-requirements-2022-01-13/

Quebec tax on unvaccinated may be lawful but sets risky precedent - experts

TORONTO, Jan 12 (Reuters) - A proposal by Quebec to tax unvaccinated people may be lawful but may also go against the spirit of Canada's universal public health system, rights and medical experts said on Wednesday.

Tuesday's surprise announcement by the province's premier, Francois Legault, came with few details.

While his government would not say Wednesday how the tax would be levied, when or against whom, Canada's Civil Liberties Association said it could violate Canadians' fundamental rights, while health advocates expressed concern about its broader implications.

"I've not seen anything like this in Canada before. I'm worried about the precedent it would set," said Danyaal Raza, a doctor with Unity Health in Toronto and former chair of Canadian Doctors for Medicare.

Quebec, Canada's second-most populous province, is struggling with surging COVID-19 hospitalizations, and Legault noted that the province's relatively small unvaccinated population was represented disproportionately among the hospitalized.

Facing a provincial election in October, his government's response to the pandemic thus far has met with approval from 65% of Quebeckers surveyed, according to a Leger poll released this week.

But the province's public health director stepped down earlier this week, prior to the tax plan announcement, citing an "erosion" of public trust in anti-pandemic measures.

----Canada's public health system is underpinned by the Canada Health Act, meant to guarantee universality and accessibility, among other things. It precludes user fees for insured services.

Quebec's tax could be framed as a "sin tax" similar to that placed on alcohol and cigarettes or as a tax on a health risk factor like private insurers charge, Raza said.

As such, it might not violate Canada's Health Act but that did not mean it was a good idea, he said.

Cara Zwibel, acting general counsel for the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, said it might however violate Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms if viewed as "a way of compelling people to get vaccinated".

More

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/quebec-tax-unvaccinated-may-be-lawful-sets-risky-precedent-experts-2022-01-12/

As hospitals reel, California tells coronavirus-positive medical workers to stay on the job

Wed, January 12, 2022, 1:00 PM

Daylong waits in the emergency room. No one to answer the phones. No one to take out the trash. And more patients arriving each day.

That's the scene playing out at some hospitals across Southern California as the Omicron-fueled surge of COVID-19 contributes to a crippling shortage of doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers. While Omicron is causing significantly fewer serious illnesses than last year's winter surge, the unprecedented number of people becoming infected has left the medical infrastructure on edge.

State officials are attempting to address California's staffing shortage through a sweeping policy change that allows asymptomatic healthcare workers who have tested positive for the coronavirus to return to work immediately. The policy, set to remain in place through Feb. 1, is designed to keep many healthcare workers on the job at a time when hospitals are expecting more patients.

Some experts say California's stance is an unorthodox yet necessary solution to a difficult problem. Yet many healthcare workers and community members say the policy is not only ill-advised, it's potentially dangerous.

More

https://news.yahoo.com/hospitals-reeling-california-tells-covid-130036030.html

Finally, China. Is China’s Covid complete lockdown policy already failing due to omicron?

Another Chinese city detects Omicron case as Tianjin outbreak expands

Thu, January 13, 2022, 12:59 AM

BEIJING (Reuters) -The Chinese port city of Tianjin reported an increase in COVID-19 infections on Thursday as it stepped up efforts to rein in an outbreak that has spread the highly transmissible Omicron variant to another Chinese city.

Omicron has brought fresh challenges to China's strategy to quickly extinguish local outbreaks, an approach that has taken on extra urgency in the run-up to the Winter Olympics starting on Feb. 4, as well as the Lunar New Year holiday peak travel season beginning later this month.

Tianjin, located in northern China around 100 km (62 miles) from the capital Beijing, reported 41 domestically transmitted infections with confirmed symptoms on Wednesday, up from 33 a day earlier, data from the National Health Commission showed on Thursday.

The northeastern city of Dalian also reported that an individual arriving from Tianjin had also contracted the Omicron variant, state television said late on Wednesday.

Anyang in central China's Henan province reported 43 local symptomatic cases on Wednesday compared with 65 a day earlier. The city said on Monday it detected two Omicron infections and that the current flare-up could be traced back to a student arriving from Tianjin.

Case numbers in Tianjin and Anyang are tiny compared with outbreaks in many other countries, and the total number of local Omicron infections remains unclear. Still, they imposed varying degrees of restrictions on movement within the cities and out of town.

Across China, several cities have ordered quarantine for anyone who has recently visited Tianjin or Anyang.

Many cities, including Beijing, are encouraging people to stay put during the Lunar New Year holiday, typically the busiest time of year for travel.

More

https://www.yahoo.com/news/china-reports-190-coronavirus-cases-005928211.html

 

Global Inflation/Stagflation Watch.

Given our Magic Money Tree central banksters and our spendthrift politicians,  inflation now needs an entire section of its own.

Today, come back President Carter, all is forgiven.

U.S. consumer prices post biggest rise in nearly 40 years; inflation close to peaking

WASHINGTON, Jan 12 (Reuters) - U.S. consumer prices increased solidly in December as rental accommodation and used cars maintained their strong gains, culminating in the largest annual rise in inflation in nearly four decades, which bolstered expectations that the Federal Reserve will start raising interest rates as early as March.

The report from the Labor Department on Wednesday followed on the heels of data last Friday showing that the labor market was at or near maximum employment.

----The high cost of living, the result of snarled supply chains because of the COVID-19 pandemic, is a political nightmare for President Joe Biden, whose approval rating has taken a hit.

"The Fed is going to be forced to begin raising rates in March and depending on the political pressure on them – from both sides of the aisle – they are going to have to raise rates four or more times in this year and potentially more than that next year," said Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer at Independent Advisor Alliance in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The consumer price index rose 0.5% last month after advancing 0.8% in November. In addition to higher rents, consumers also paid more for food, though the 0.5% increase in food prices was less than in the prior three months. There were big gains in the prices of fruits and vegetables, but beef prices fell 2.0% after recent sharp gains.

Consumers also got a respite from gasoline prices, which fell 0.5% after rising 6.1% in both November and October.

In the 12 months through December, the CPI surged 7.0%. That was the biggest year-on-year increase since June 1982 and followed a 6.8% rise in November.

Last month's inflation readings were in line with expectations. Rising inflation is also eroding wage gains. Inflation-adjusted average weekly earnings fell 2.3% on a year-on-year basis in December.

More

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-consumer-prices-increase-strongly-december-2022-01-12/

Amid rising prices, American families fall deeper in debt

Published Tue, Jan 11 2022 8:11 AM EST

Higher prices are already taking a toll.

As consumers pay more for everything from groceries to gasoline, household income is failing to keep pace with a higher overall cost of living, according to recent reports.

Over the past two years, median income fell 3% while the cost of living rose nearly 7%, due, in part, to rising housing and medical costs.

More than three-quarters of Americans, or 78%, have received some form of pandemic relief since March 2020, which either went toward buying necessities, savings or paying down debt, according to a NerdWallet poll of more than 2,000 adults.

And yet, more than one-third said their household financial situation has gotten worse over the past year.

After Americans paid off a record $83 billion in credit card debt, credit card balances are on the rise again, along with mortgage, auto and student loan debt.

“The past year and a half was already tough for the millions of Americans who lost jobs,” said Sara Rathner, NerdWallet’s credit cards expert. “Now, we’re faced with rising costs for much-needed items — food, housing, gas, transportation and medical care.

“It remains difficult for many to catch up.” 

The average U.S. household with debt now owes $155,622, or more than $15 trillion altogether, including debt from credit cards, mortgages, home equity lines of credit, auto loans, student loans and other household obligations — up 6.2% from a year ago.  

While most federal relief measures to help individuals and families — namely expanded unemployment benefits and stimulus checks — are no longer in effect, it is expected that there will be bigger wage increases in 2022. 

The Conference Board is predicting a 3.9% jump in wage costs for firms, including pay for new hires. That’s the highest rate since 2008.

More

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/11/amid-rising-prices-us-households-fall-deeper-in-debt.html

Centrica boss on the energy crisis: High gas bills are here to stay

Wednesday 12 January 2022 7:30 am

Brits have been told the energy crisis may last for two years, according to Centrica’s chief executive Chris O’Shea.

O’Shea said “the market suggests” high gas prices will continue “for the next 18 months to two years”.

He said the high demand for gas was partly being driven by a move away from coal and oil.

“As we move towards net zero, gas is a big transition fuel,” Mr O’Shea said.

“And so as you turn off coal-fired power stations in other countries, there isn’t an abundance of gas that you can just turn on quickly,” he told the BBC.

But Mr O’Shea also threw cold water on the idea of boosting supply from the North Sea as a domestic solution to the crisis.

“We bring gas in from the United States, from Norway, from Europe, from Qatar, from other places. So we’re not in a position to simply have the UK as an isolated energy market. We are part of a global market.”

It comes after industry leaders warned a taxpayer-backed support package for energy-intensive businesses hit by the surge in gas prices may be no more than a “flimsy sticking plaster”.

https://www.cityam.com/centrica-boss-on-the-energy-crisis-high-gas-bills-are-here-to-stay/

Never make bad predictions, especially about the future.

Casey Stengel.

Covid-19 Corner

This section will continue until it becomes unneeded.

Israel gives fourth doses as EU warns against frequent boosters; South Africa records 5,668 new cases

About 400,000 Israelis have received a fourth dose of Covid-19 vaccine, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said on Tuesday. At the same time, European Union regulators warned that frequent boosters could adversely affect the immune system and may not be feasible.  

JPMorgan Chase Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon warned that vaccine holdouts among the bank’s staff in New York to get vaccinated means losing the right to enter the office and get paid. New York City Covid rates are “plateauing”, Governor Kathy Hochul said.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said Europe should consider the possibility of treating Covid-19 as an endemic illness. The World Health Organization warned of  a “west-to-east tidal wave” that may infect more than half of Europe’s population within the next six to eight weeks. 

The Omicron-fuelled Covid surge in New York appears to be “cresting over that peak” as the rate of increase slows, New York Governor Kathy Hochul said on Tuesday.

She said the percentage of New Yorkers that tested positive had dropped to 18.6%, from more than 22% in recent days.

In New York City, Covid rates are “plateauing,” while upstate figures are tracking behind the city by a couple of weeks, Hochul said in a virus briefing.

More

https://www.msn.com/en-za/news/other/israel-gives-fourth-doses-as-eu-warns-against-frequent-boosters-south-africa-records-5-668-new-cases/ar-AASG2Hc?ocid=uxbndlbing&pfr=1

Omicron may be headed for a rapid drop in Britain, US

Scientists are seeing signals that COVID-19′s alarming omicron wave may have peaked in Britain and is about to do the same in the U.S., at which point cases may start dropping off dramatically.

The reason: The variant has proved so wildly contagious that it may already be running out of people to infect, just a month and a half after it was first detected in South Africa.

“It’s going to come down as fast as it went up,” said Ali Mokdad, a professor of health metrics sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle.

At the same time, experts warn that much is still uncertain about how the next phase of the pandemic might unfold. The plateauing or ebbing in the two countries is not happening everywhere at the same time or at the same pace. And weeks or months of misery still lie ahead for patients and overwhelmed hospitals even if the drop-off comes to pass.

“There are still a lot of people who will get infected as we descend the slope on the backside,” said Lauren Ancel Meyers, director of the University of Texas COVID-19 Modeling Consortium, which predicts that reported cases will peak within the week.

The University of Washington’s own highly influential model projects that the number of daily reported cases in the U.S. will crest at 1.2 million by Jan. 19 and will then fall sharply “simply because everybody who could be infected will be infected,” according to Mokdad.

In fact, he said, by the university’s complex calculations, the true number of new daily infections in the U.S. — an estimate that includes people who were never tested — has already peaked, hitting 6 million on Jan. 6.

In Britain, meanwhile, new COVID-19 cases dropped to about 140,000 a day in the last week, after skyrocketing to more than 200,000 a day earlier this month, according to government data.

Numbers from the U.K.’s National Health Service this week show coronavirus hospital admissions for adults have begun to fall, with infections dropping in all age groups.

---- The figures have raised hopes that the two countries are about to undergo something similar to what happened in South Africa, where in the span of about a month the wave crested at record highs and then fell significantly.

“We are seeing a definite falling-off of cases in the U.K., but I’d like to see them fall much further before we know if what happened in South Africa will happen here,” said Dr. Paul Hunter, a professor of medicine at Britain’s University of East Anglia.

Dr. David Heymann, who previously led the World Health Organization’s infectious diseases department, said Britain was “the closest to any country of being out of the pandemic,” adding that COVID-19 was inching towards becoming endemic.

More

https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-science-health-washington-pandemics-160ded1ce8d82075057630e11b610358?user_email=&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=MorningWire_Jan12&utm_content=A&utm_term=Morning%20Wire%20Subscribers

Covid loses '90pc of its infectiousness within five minutes of being airborne'

Tue, January 11, 2022, 7:27 PM

Coronavirus loses 90 per cent of its infectiousness within five minutes of becoming airborne, a new study has suggested.

Preliminary data from the University of Bristol reveals that in a real world situation the conditions of the air dry out the viral particles.

The team measured how stable SARS-CoV-2 droplets – the virus which causes Covid – are over time, ranging from five seconds to 20 minutes.

A decrease in infectivity to approximately 10 per cent of the starting value was observable for SARS-CoV-2 over 20 minutes, with a large proportion of the loss occurring within the first 5 minutes after aerosolisation,” the scientists write in the paper.

The findings indicate that the virus does not survive for long outside the warm and damp environment of a host's respiratory system, and loses its potency rapidly in the wild.

The study, which has not yet been published in full or peer-reviewed, shows that in air with 50 per cent humidity, akin to that circulated in large buildings, there is a “near-instant loss of infectivity in 50 to 60 per cent of the virus”.

At much higher humidity, the droplet does not dry out instantly and remains fluid for longer, which means the virus remains stable and infectious for two minutes.

However, even under these favourable conditions the virus loses 90 per cent of its infectiousness after ten minutes.

“It means that if I’m meeting friends for lunch in a pub today, the primary [risk] is likely to be me transmitting it to my friends, or my friends transmitting it to me, rather than it being transmitted from someone on the other side of the room,” Prof Jonathan Reid, the study’s lead author from the University of Bristol, told The Guardian.

Prof Paul Hunter, professor in medicine at the University of East Anglia, said that the study suggests airborne spread “may not be as important as some have thought”.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/covid-loses-90pc-infectiousness-within-192738828.html

Yale team develops clip-on monitor to detect coronavirus exposure

Rich Haridy  January 11, 2022

Engineers from Yale University have developed a wearable device that can help individuals assess whether they have been exposed to SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. The cheap device can clip onto a person’s clothes and capture aerosolized viral particles in the surrounding environment.

From rapid tests to vaccines, many extraordinary innovations have helped us navigate this global pandemic. While we have a number of ways to determine whether a person has been infected with SARS-CoV-2, we still can only guess when and how someone has been exposed to the virus.

This new innovation from a team of Yale University researchers is hoping to fill that surveillance gap. Called the Fresh Air Clip, the device is cheap, designed to attach to a person’s collar and capture aerosolized viral particles around a person’s mouth and nose.

The clip captures viral particles on a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) surface. At the end of a day, or several days, a wearer removes the clip and sends it to a lab which uses polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis to determine the presence of SARS-CoV-2.

A new study is reporting on several tests of the Fresh Air Clip establishing it can effectively capture airborne viral particles. One experiment involved supplying the clips to a number of volunteers who wore the monitors for up to five days. Of the 62 monitors deployed, five returned positive results indicating exposure to SARS-CoV-2.

“Of the positive Fresh Air Clips, four were worn by restaurant servers and one was worn by a homeless shelter staff person,” the study indicates. “Notably, two positive samples collected in restaurants with indoor dining were found to have high viral load when compared to the other samples (>100 copies per clip), suggestive of close contact with one or more infected individuals.”

As well as establishing the wearable monitor as being able to capture detectable levels of viral particles the researchers note the device is sensitive enough to catch exposure events at sub infectious doses. This suggests the volume of viral particles picked up by the monitor allows for the quantification of environmental exposure to the virus. This is important as it means the device does not simply offer an indication of viral exposure but a measure of the level of exposure.

Krystal Pollitt, a researcher working on the device, says one interesting potential use for the device could be to test the effectiveness of ventilation settings in COVID positive patient hospital rooms. Speaking to Yale News recently Pollitt said her team found airborne traces of SARS-CoV-2 in hospital rooms that were thought to be well ventilated.

More

https://newatlas.com/health-wellbeing/yale-wearable-virus-monitor-covid-coronavirus-exposure/?utm_source=New+Atlas+Subscribers&utm_campaign=133444b98c-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2022_01_12_09_12&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-133444b98c-90625829

Next, some vaccine links kindly sent along from a LIR reader in Canada. The links come from a most informative update from Stanford Hospital in California.

World Health Organization - Landscape of COVID-19 candidate vaccineshttps://www.who.int/publications/m/item/draft-landscape-of-covid-19-candidate-vaccines

NY Times Coronavirus Vaccine Trackerhttps://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/science/coronavirus-vaccine-tracker.html

Regulatory Focus COVID-19 vaccine trackerhttps://www.raps.org/news-and-articles/news-articles/2020/3/covid-19-vaccine-tracker

Some other useful Covid links.

Johns Hopkins Coronavirus resource centre

https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html

Rt Covid-19

https://rt.live/

Centers for Disease Control Coronavirus

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html

The Spectator Covid-19 data tracker (UK)

https://data.spectator.co.uk/city/national

 

Technology Update.

With events happening fast in the development of solar power and graphene, I’ve added this section. Updates as they get reported.

1,000-cycle lithium-sulfur battery could quintuple electric vehicle ranges

by University of Michigan  January 12, 2022

A network of aramid nanofibers, recycled from Kevlar, can enable lithium-sulfur batteries to overcome their Achilles heel of cycle life—the number of times it can be charged and discharged—a University of Michigan team has shown.

"There are a number of reports claiming several hundred cycles for lithium-sulfur batteries, but it is achieved at the expense of other parameters—capacity, charging rate, resilience and safety. The challenge nowadays is to make a battery that increases the cycling rate from the former 10 cycles to hundreds of cycles and satisfies multiple other requirements including cost," said Nicholas Kotov, the Irving Langmuir Distinguished University Professor of Chemical Sciences and Engineering, who led the research.

"Biomimetic engineering of these batteries integrated two scales—molecular and nanoscale. For the first time, we integrated ionic selectivity of cell membranes and toughness of cartilage. Our integrated system approach enabled us to address the overarching challenges of lithium-sulfur batteries."

Previously, his team had relied on networks of aramid nanofibers infused with an electrolyte gel to stop one of the main causes of short cycle-life: dendrites that grow from one electrode to the other, piercing the membrane. The toughness of aramid fibers stops the dendrites.

---- As a battery, Kotov says that the design is "nearly perfect," with its capacity and efficiency approaching the theoretical limits. It can also handle the temperature extremes of automotive life, from the heat of charging in full sun to the chill of winter. However, the real-world cycle life may be shorter with fast charging, more like 1,000 cycles, he says. This is considered a ten-year lifespan.

Along with the higher capacity, lithium-sulfur batteries have sustainability advantages over other lithium-ion batteries. Sulfur is much more abundant than the cobalt of lithium-ion electrodes. In addition, the aramid fibers of the battery membrane can be recycled from old bulletproof vests.

The research was published in Nature Communications.

See that fella over there? He's 20 years old. In 10 years, he's got a chance to be a star. Now that fella over there, he's 20 years old, too. In 10 years he's got a chance to be 30.

Casey Stengel.

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