Posted on 12/19/2007 5:29:22 PM PST by decimon
Stanford researchers have found a way to use silicon nanowires to reinvent the rechargeable lithium-ion batteries that power laptops, iPods, video cameras, cell phones, and countless other devices.
The new version, developed through research led by Yi Cui, assistant professor of materials science and engineering, produces 10 times the amount of electricity of existing lithium-ion, known as Li-ion, batteries. A laptop that now runs on battery for two hours could operate for 20 hours, a boon to ocean-hopping business travelers.
"It's not a small improvement," Cui said. "It's a revolutionary development."
The breakthrough is described in a paper, "High-performance lithium battery anodes using silicon nanowires," published online Dec. 16 in Nature Nanotechnology, written by Cui, his graduate chemistry student Candace Chan and five others.
The greatly expanded storage capacity could make Li-ion batteries attractive to electric car manufacturers. Cui suggested that they could also be used in homes or offices to store electricity generated by rooftop solar panels.
"Given the mature infrastructure behind silicon, this new technology can be pushed to real life quickly," Cui said.
The electrical storage capacity of a Li-ion battery is limited by how much lithium can be held in the battery's anode, which is typically made of carbon. Silicon has a much higher capacity than carbon, but also has a drawback.
Silicon placed in a battery swells as it absorbs positively charged lithium atoms during charging, then shrinks during use (i.e., when playing your iPod) as the lithium is drawn out of the silicon. This expand/shrink cycle typically causes the silicon (often in the form of particles or a thin film) to pulverize, degrading the performance of the battery.
Cui's battery gets around this problem with nanotechnology. The lithium is stored in a forest of tiny silicon nanowires, each with a diameter one-thousandth the thickness of a sheet of paper. The nanowires inflate four times their normal size as they soak up lithium. But, unlike other silicon shapes, they do not fracture.
Research on silicon in batteries began three decades ago. Chan explained: "The people kind of gave up on it because the capacity wasn't high enough and the cycle life wasn't good enough. And it was just because of the shape they were using. It was just too big, and they couldn't undergo the volume changes."
Then, along came silicon nanowires. "We just kind of put them together," Chan said.
For their experiments, Chan grew the nanowires on a stainless steel substrate, providing an excellent electrical connection. "It was a fantastic moment when Candace told me it was working," Cui said.
Cui said that a patent application has been filed. He is considering formation of a company or an agreement with a battery manufacturer. Manufacturing the nanowire batteries would require "one or two different steps, but the process can certainly be scaled up," he added. "It's a well understood process."
Also contributing to the paper in Nature Nanotechnology were Halin Peng and Robert A. Huggins of Materials Science and Engineering at Stanford, Gao Liu of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and Kevin McIlwrath and Xiao Feng Zhang of the electron microscope division of Hitachi High Technologies in Pleasanton, Calif.
Uh huh. And I suppose there will be one at my house?
Oh, BTW, I can get you a great deal on some prime Florida swamp..er...real estate.
Cool. My new cordless drill will go for two weeks on a battery.
No thanks, I'm still paying off my Poconos land.
If I'm recalling that article correctly, the battery substations are not vapor but in process.
I’ve seen the video clip of the exploding laptop.Ten times more energy should make that a whole lot more exciting!
I'm always skeptical of any press release about an energy product before it comes to market. They always leave out some big negative detail, and it never makes it to market.
If we could marry this battery with 10 times the charge with a battery that chargs 90 percent in 5 minutes things would look realy good. Also don’t forget about the Tesla car that is due to be released early next year. It runs off of double AA batteries.
December 13, 2007 Toshiba have stunned the world with their announcement of what’s pretty much the holy grail in Lithium battery technology – the Super Charge ion Battery, which recharges up to 90% of its energy in just five minutes, and has a lifespan of over 10 years. Slow charging has been the key hurdle to public acceptance of battery-electric vehicles as viable distance travelers, so this breakthrough has all sorts of implications for the automotive industry as well as being a very welcome upgrade to a whole host of other portable devices.
http://www.gizmag.com/toshiba-scib-super-charge-lithium-battery/8506/
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1941827/postsToshiba's building a "Micro Nuclear" reactor for your garage? Alright, details are slim, and we really have no idea if Toshiba has any plans whatsoever to sell these nuclear reactors to consumers -- in fact, we hope it doesn't -- but it does seem like the company is well on its way to commercializing the design. Toshiba's Micro Nuclear reactors are designed to power a single apartment building or city block, and measure a mere 20-feet by 6-feet. The 200 kilowatt reactor is fully automatic and fail-safe, and is completely self-sustaining. It uses special liquid lithium-6 reservoirs instead of traditional control rods, and can last up to 40 years, making energy for about 5 cents per kilowatt hour. Toshiba has been testing the reactors since 2005, and hopes to install its first reactor in Japan in 2008, with marketing to Europe and America in 2009. Oh, and we lied: we totally want one of these in our garage
Obviously the guy who came up with this title is a researcher, not a marketer.
December 13, 2007 Toshiba have stunned the world with their announcement of what’s pretty much the holy grail in Lithium battery technology – the Super Charge ion Battery, which recharges up to 90% of its energy in just five minutes, and has a lifespan of over 10 years. Slow charging has been the key hurdle to public acceptance of battery-electric vehicles as viable distance travelers, so this breakthrough has all sorts of implications for the automotive industry as well as being a very welcome upgrade to a whole host of other portable devices."
http://www.gizmag.com/toshiba-scib-super-charge-lithium-battery/8506/
That is a great idea to merge those 2 technologies .That would make the electric car feasible.
Actually,today with these 3 inventions,then we have solved the energy crises. This 2 new batteries will allow the electric car to be feasible. And with this personal nuclear reactor from Toshiba we have unlimited energy. Now if government just gets out of the way and lets these companies build these things.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1941827/postsToshiba's building a "Micro Nuclear" reactor for your garage? Alright, details are slim, and we really have no idea if Toshiba has any plans whatsoever to sell these nuclear reactors to consumers -- in fact, we hope it doesn't -- but it does seem like the company is well on its way to commercializing the design. Toshiba's Micro Nuclear reactors are designed to power a single apartment building or city block, and measure a mere 20-feet by 6-feet. The 200 kilowatt reactor is fully automatic and fail-safe, and is completely self-sustaining. It uses special liquid lithium-6 reservoirs instead of traditional control rods, and can last up to 40 years, making energy for about 5 cents per kilowatt hour. Toshiba has been testing the reactors since 2005, and hopes to install its first reactor in Japan in 2008, with marketing to Europe and America in 2009. Oh, and we lied: we totally want one of these in our garage
0 to 60 in under 4 seconds and built by Lotus will set you back $100,000.
The mere fact that most people will drive in the daytime and charge their batteries at night should do a lot to even out the demand.
I say; call it “THE NANO-BATT” Corporation.
California doesn't like electricity or things electric.
We will never hear about this again.
Stanford is a private school.
They live on their patents.
December 13, 2007 Toshiba have stunned the world with their announcement of what’s pretty much the holy grail in Lithium battery technology – the Super Charge ion Battery, which recharges up to 90% of its energy in just five minutes, and has a lifespan of over 10 years. Slow charging has been the key hurdle to public acceptance of battery-electric vehicles as viable distance travelers, so this breakthrough has all sorts of implications for the automotive industry as well as being a very welcome upgrade to a whole host of other portable devices."
http://www.gizmag.com/toshiba-scib-super-charge-lithium-battery/8506/
That is a great idea to merge those 2 technologies .That would make the electric car feasible. I'm going to steal that invention and make a company and make a fortune lol.
Are we getting closer and closer to the “Shipstone”?
OK...who gets the reference? :)
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bmflr
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According to Intrade, the winner of the December 12th GOP debate was... Duncan Hunter.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1938773/posts
> The Chinese will steal it first. <
How can that be? They already have “it” because they invented “it.”
Didn’t you notice the names of these scientists? All but one of them are Chinese!
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