Breakthrough on battery life?
New research might have discovered engineering that could significantly increase the efficiency of the batteries we use.
This is where Mya Le Thai’s magic gel comes in. Typically, a Lithium Ion battery can go through between 5000 and 7000 recharge cycles before it dies and will also gradually lose its energy storage capacity over time. When researchers applied Thai’s plexiglass-like gel to gold nanowires in a manganese dioxiode shell, it increased that number to over 200,000 and the battery didn’t lose any of its power or storage capacity over a period of three months.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
New research might have discovered engineering that could significantly increase the efficiency of the batteries we use.
This is where Mya Le Thai’s magic gel comes in. Typically, a Lithium Ion battery can go through between 5000 and 7000 recharge cycles before it dies and will also gradually lose its energy storage capacity over time. When researchers applied Thai’s plexiglass-like gel to gold nanowires in a manganese dioxiode shell, it increased that number to over 200,000 and the battery didn’t lose any of its power or storage capacity over a period of three months.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Right….Been hearing that story for the last 50 yrs.. Park it next to flying cars. SST. Rosie the Robot, Tube Travel, Moon Bases, Food synthesizers , jet packs, anti grav , free energy , et al…
And , of course , fusion power
As the article says: It will most probably be quite some time before we see this discovery in commercial action, though.
Gotta go with Orion314 on this, I’ll only believe it when I see it in an actual battery I can purchase. I’ve seen far too many articles like this over the last 40 years. Batteries have indeed gotten better since the 70’s, but it’s been a long slow process compared with other technologies.
The paper describing the results is here:
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/ipdf/10.1021/acsenergylett.6b00029
I will stick with either Nickel Iron or Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries for my big projects. Trendy new technologies always have problems in the beginning. Case in point, when NiMH batteries became easily available I bought a few since they had roughly twice the storage capacity of my NiCad. Every single one of them died within a year of purchase and the Nicads, to this day (~15 years) still work. Even today, I buy NIMH’s for some projects but the cell failure rate it astounding.
Nickel Iron on the other hand is a very old technology and has a superb cycle life when properly maintained, some have lasted 70 years. Seventy Years. Granted they are large and heavy, with about three times the capacity of a lead acid battery for their mass, putting them below NiCads in terms of energy density, but their longevity and robust construction make them a much better investment for stationary projects or even electric vehicles.
Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFe), like it’s Lithium Ion brothers has a very high energy density. While LiFe’s have somewhat less of a storage capacity then then Lithium Ion or Lithium Polymer, their best selling point is that unlike either of these two popular chemistries, LiFe’s don’t explode when shorted, punctured or heated, making them ideal for high current applications. I frankly find it mystifying why Mr. Musk isn’t looking into this technology, especially considering those unsightly garage fires.
Anyway, enough sounding like a battery commercial. Just wanted to share my insights into the technology and express a healthy skepticism about this “Magic goo.” My skepticism is not that it works or not, I’m sure that it does, likely because the goo is increasing the surface area within the battery. My skepticism is aimed rather at whether this technology will be embraced. The battery companies already have a product that makes them a lot of money, they aren’t going to invest in something new unless they can make more money then it would cost to retool.
The magic word in this new tech is Nano.
As far as I know we have no way of manufacturing anything Nana on an industrial scale.
Efficiency? I think you mean affordability