Posted on 10/15/2009 12:51:44 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
A new kind of portable electrochemical battery that can produce thousands of hours of power - and soon replace the expensive regular or rechargeable batteries in hearing aids and sensors and eventually in cellphones, laptop computers and even electric cars - has been developed at Haifa's Technion-Israel Institute of Technology.
The unique battery is based on silicon as a fuel that reverts to its original sand. The battery can also be left on the shelf for years and inserted into a device to provide immediate power.
It was developed over the last two-and-a-half years by Prof. Yair Ein-Eli of the Technion's materials engineering department, with collaboration by Prof. Digby Macdonald of Pennsylvania State University in the US and Prof. Rika Hagiwara of Kyoto University in Japan.
The work was conducted with a grant from the US-Israel Binational Science Foundation, and an article on the battery was just published in the journal Electrochemistry Communications.
Ein-Eli told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday that he has spent the last eight years investigating silicon in all aspects and the possibility of its serving as the major component of a highly efficient and environmentally friendly battery.
Five years ago, he met Macdonald, who attended Ein-Eli's lecture on electrochemistry, and they decided to work together, with the American coming to visit his Technion lab once a year.
The team obtained from the Japanese researcher an ionic liquid (liquid electrolytes or salts that form stable liquids) that does not evaporate easily. Most of the work was performed in the Haifa lab.
Ordinary portable batteries are composed of a positive electrode called a cathode and a negative one called an anode. They are separated by material containing ions (electrolytes in a liquid form).
Some metal-air batteries exist, such as those using lithium, and are cheaper and lighter because they lack a cathode structure. Various big companies such as IBM, together with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, are trying to develop rechargeable lithium-air batteries that could function 10 times longer than conventional batteries, but they have not yet succeeded.
The ionic liquid developed a decade ago in Japan is the perfect substance for this purpose, Ein-Eli continued. In such electrolytes, the highly doped silicon - a semi-conductor - is activated and acts as a highly metalized conductor.
"We bought ready-made flat metalized silicon wafers, which serve as the anode. There is no corrosion or evaporation with the ionic liquid, and unlike conventional batteries, the silicon-air battery does not absorb water from the outside," he explained.
In the Technion battery, oxygen from the air in the battery capsule passes through a membrane and interacts with oxidized silicon, which is inert, stable, lightweight and nontoxic, has a high-energy content and can be used later as a building material. Most computer chips are also made from silicon.
The new invention - with a US patent pending - is not rechargeable, but it can supply power for thousands of hours, said Ein-Eli.
The Technion battery ranges from one square centimeter - small enough for hearing aids and much more efficient than the highly expensive, short-lasting lithium ones used now - to several square centimeters. In another year, the power output can be significantly increased, and in three or four years, said the researcher, it could be made rechargeable as well.
"Think of an electric car battery made from silicon that will turn into sand that would be recycled into silicon and then into power again," suggested Ein-Eli. "This would take about 10 years more and be revolutionary. It could be used in any portable electronic device or be integrated with solar or wind power as well as electric energy."
A number of foreign and Israeli companies have already contacted him and shown strong interest in the battery, he said.
The system is "highly promising, as it is capable of outperforming other existing metal-air battery technologies," Ein-Eli concluded.
God bless inventors!
Of course, no true muslim should use this battery since a Jew invented it. Let's see if we get a fatwah on this...
Then perhaps we can fund some additional nuclear plants.
Excellent.
Now if only we had built nuclear plants to charge these things.
Finally, a Jew that can sell sand to an Arab!!
Thank you, thank you; I’ll be here all week. Please don’t forget to tip your waitress’ and bartenders.
THIS is a true game changer that would be a valid nobel candidate
well done, Professor!
I think these new batteries should power the guidance systems on the missiles sent to/at Iran as a Jewish offer of technology sharing.
Hey, works for me. We can all transition to this new long-life battery, and the muzzies can stick with NiCads and Lithium and such.
Another fantastic invention that will change the world...
...and this is the last we'll ever hear of it.
Hey, I hear that a thousand years ago, the Muslims invented the Zero!
Battery ping!.............
Oh great. The Arabs own all the sand.....................
“Deja vu all over again. Another fantastic invention that will change the world...
...and this is the last we’ll ever hear of it.”
Exactly.
What is the stock symbol?
I wonder if it could be tweaked for very high output for a short period of time.
Imagine what could be developed out of this.
The way things are going we're going to have to hook up generators to exercise bikes to power anything.
God bless Israel!
This is the best comment in a while, I am still ROTFL
Now your kids can Talk, Tweet, Twitter and Text non-stop...
Bah-Da-Bumm!(drums)
anyone got a photoshop of the Energizer Bunny in a Yamulke?
"NOBODY NEEDS OUR OIL ANYMORE BECAUSE OF THE (*@#$%*(#@ JOOOOOOOOOOS!!!1!"
The Atkins diet killed the potato battery..................
I’ll believe it when I see it sitting on the shelf at Walmart. These types of stories never mention the negatives.
Genesis 22:
15 The angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time 16 and said, “I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, 18 and through your offspring [b] all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”
Yes! Batteries that last a looooooong time!..................
Duracell will make sure of that.
My watch battery does that.
Thanks!
Especially because it chaps the shorts of the PC nanny-staters.
Keep this thing to yourself . Produce and manufacture it and use it like the Sadui’s use their oil.
She looked better in the blond wig last night but Of course I’m sober now...
My well went dry, but I’m going to get out the garden hose and fill it back up.
It could also put the oil states out of biz. A cheap powerful battery can make electric cars a reality as well as make solar and wind power actually dependable!
This will all contribute to the fall in the price of oil, and the end of funding to these terrorist states!
Your not kidding.
Nonsense. Good ideas that really work, do in fact make it into the market. 100mpg carburetors that don't in fact work... don't make it to the market.
There are more descendants of Abraham than just the Jews who are a particular Tribe of Israel (Jacob) that includes the Tribe of Benjamin and some of the Tribe of Levi. The Ten Lost Tribes were eventually disseminated into the populations of peoples that eventually became the populations of Europe. Abraham also had descendants that were from his concubines and later wives after Sarah died. And don’t forget the Arabs who are the descendants of Ishmael, Abraham’s son with Hagar, Sarah’s servant girl, before the birth of Isaac. Abraham’s descendants from his concubines and later wives were sent off “to the East” from Canaan, presumably toward India and the Far East.........
Genesis 25 (New International Version)
The Death of Abraham
1 Abraham took [a] another wife, whose name was Keturah.
2 She bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak and Shuah.
3 Jokshan was the father of Sheba and Dedan; the descendants of Dedan were the Asshurites, the Letushites and the Leummites.
4 The sons of Midian were Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abida and Eldaah. All these were descendants of Keturah.
5 Abraham left everything he owned to Isaac.
6 But while he was still living, he gave gifts to the sons of his concubines and sent them away from his son Isaac to the land of the east.
7 Altogether, Abraham lived a hundred and seventy-five years.
8 Then Abraham breathed his last and died at a good old age, an old man and full of years; and he was gathered to his people.
9 His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah near Mamre, in the field of Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite,
10 the field Abraham had bought from the Hittites. [b] There Abraham was buried with his wife Sarah.
11 After Abraham’s death, God blessed his son Isaac, who then lived near Beer Lahai Roi.
Ishmael’s Sons
12 This is the account of Abraham’s son Ishmael, whom Sarah’s maidservant, Hagar the Egyptian, bore to Abraham.
13 These are the names of the sons of Ishmael, listed in the order of their birth: Nebaioth the firstborn of Ishmael, Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam,
14 Mishma, Dumah, Massa,
15 Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish and Kedemah.
16 These were the sons of Ishmael, and these are the names of the twelve tribal rulers according to their settlements and camps. 17 Altogether, Ishmael lived a hundred and thirty-seven years. He breathed his last and died, and he was gathered to his people.
18 His descendants settled in the area from Havilah to Shur, near the border of Egypt, as you go toward Asshur. And they lived in hostility toward [c] all their brothers.
Now notice that Abraham was the progenitor of the Midianites (who bought Joseph as a slave), and the peoples of Sheba (as in Queen of who was extremely wealthy and visited Solomon) and Dedan. The descendants of Dedan were the Asshurites, who eventually became the Assyrians, who took Israel, The Northern Kingdom, into captivity and they became the Ten Lost Tribes..................
So Obama's been that long in the making ... who knew?
Book of Jubilees 20:13 And Ishmael and his sons, and the sons of Keturah and their sons, went together and dwelt from Paran to the entering in of Babylon in all the land which is towards the East facing the desert. And these mingled with each other, and their name was called Arabs, and Ishmaelites.
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