Scientists use 3D printer to create microbatteries smaller than a single GRAIN of sand...

Daily Mail ^ | 6/19/13 | Anna Sanders

[LibWhacker]

Batteries were constructed from interlaced stacks of tiny electrodes, which conduct electricity, smaller than the width of a human hair The microbatteries can be used in devices too small for older batteries Researchers at Harvard and University of Illinois created electrochemically active ink for their custom 3D printer

The revolutionary technology behind 3D-printed car parts, food and guns can also be used to print batteries smaller than a grain of sand.

Scientists have used a 3D printer to make linthium-ion microbatteries that can fit into tiny devices that had previously stumped engineers looking to power them for longer periods.

The batteries were constructed from interlaced stacks of tiny battery electrodes, which conduct electricity, that are each smaller than the width of a single human hair.

Scientists from Harvard University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign reported the results of their efforts in the journal Advanced Materials.

'Not only did we demonstrate for the first time that we can 3D-print a battery; we demonstrated it in the most rigorous way,' said the senior author of the study, Jennifer A Lewis, according to a press release by Harvard's Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, where Lewis is a professor.

Many engineers have developed miniaturized electronic devices, such as miniscule medical implants, insect-like flying robots and audio and visual recorders that can fit on a pair of glasses.

The batteries normally used to power such gadgets were too large, so manufacturers would use ultra-thin films of solid materials to build the electrodes. But these didn't provide enough power.

Lewis and her colleagues realized they could pack more energy on a small scale if they could create stacks of interlaced, ultra-thin electrodes built from plane.

[LibWhacker]

Full title: Scientists use 3D printer to create microbatteries smaller than a single GRAIN of sand, paving the way for high-powered flying robot insects and mini medical implants

[muawiyah]

More drones ~ the FBI will be going nuts when they hear about this.

More seriously, combine this technology with that of the super capacity miniature batteries U of I devised and you could load your .410 with a round of buckshot that'd discharge just short of a tactical nuke!

That's why you probably won't see any of these super batteries or miniature batteries on any market for quite some time ~

[schm0e]

this sort of tests credulity, doesn't it? It's not like you can say, "seeing is believing," is it? Almost - ha - like the more technology advances, the more faith one must exercise to grasp it.

But I digress. this business of flying robot insects

is something I've been on about for years. Specifically, bolt a gps to that little critter, and you could have a thimble-nuke delivered to your shirt pocket.

Interesting times...

[LibWhacker]

***PING!***

[FreedomStar3028]

Uhm....I’m not sure how you are getting insect sized nukes from miniature batteries.

[schm0e]

the delivery vehicle is really what I’m stressing. The payload can be whatever. If you don’t like nukes, put a virus in it. In any case, it can theoretically be sent right to your person.

[dinodino]

You can’t make a nuclear weapon the size of a thimble—can’t get critical mass.

[FreedomStar3028]

God already does it.

[zencycler]

Next up - Killer Bee Micro Drones powered by these micro batteries

[schm0e]

You can’t make a nuclear weapon the size of a thimble—can’t get critical mass.

would make for an interesting storyline if you could, though.

How about little robot insects that bore into your brain and reprogram you or something?

[schm0e]

God already does it.

The problem, of course, is when man plays God.

[glasseye]

Or just think of 10,000 of these circling 1000 feet up over an opposing military base, or city.

For hours...

Food for thought.

[CrazyIvan]

“You can’t make a nuclear weapon the size of a thimble—can’t get critical mass.would make for an interesting storyline if you could, though.How about little robot insects that bore into your brain and reprogram you or something? ”

I read a book “Butcher Bird” about mini assassin drones almost twenty years ago. Very prophetic.

[schm0e]

seems like everything is that way these days...

[Bobalu]

I have a box of tiny rechargeable batteries that look just like 32.768Khz crystals (used in many electronic devices) And also some that look just like 8pin DIP ICs.

I thought they were small but not any more :-)

[roadcat]

the delivery vehicle is really what I’m stressing. The payload can be whatever. If you don’t like nukes, put a virus in it. In any case, it can theoretically be sent right to your person.

Interesting times! Artificial flying insect carrying a lethal virus, with gps and camera, targets a person and "stings" the person in the neck, then vanishes into the sky. The person would assume a bee or mosquito bit them. Now imagine these "bugs" in the hands of Obama operatives. Yikes!

[LibWhacker]

I’ve always suspected killer bees were micro-drones!

[LibWhacker]

You can’t make a nuclear weapon the size of a thimble—can’t get critical mass.

You're thinking fission. For fusion, all you need is a micro-array of hyper-powerful lasers focusing the equivalent of the power output of the US electrical grid (thanks to our microbattery) on a pea-sized ball of frozen hydrogen for a few picoseconds and ... BOOM!!! ;-)

[schm0e]

[schm0e]

heck...just locate the target and call in the laser beams from Mars.