Another battery advancement announcement

[kj7]

I am by no means an expert on this subject but it was published in Nature. Would be nice to see the full article.

http://www.nature.com/nnano/journal/...o.2012.35.html

http://phys.org/news/2012-05-nanostr...batteries.html

For more than a decade, scientists have tried to improve lithium-based batteries by replacing the graphite in one terminal with silicon, which can store 10 times more charge. But after just a few charge/discharge cycles, the silicon structure would crack and crumble, rendering the battery useless.

Now a team led by materials scientist Yi Cui of Stanford and SLAC has found a solution: a cleverly designed double-walled nanostructure that lasts more than 6,000 cycles, far more than needed by electric vehicles or mobile electronics.

time will tell...

[DonC]

I think the announcement for this came out in 2008 or 2009. These seem to be the official papers. Also note that LG Chem has been working on using nanotechnology in the anode. http://news.softpedia.com/news/Li-Io...s-217830.shtml

[kj7]

I think the announcement for this came out in 2008 or 2009. These seem to be the official papers. Also note that LG Chem has been working on using nanotechnology in the anode. http://news.softpedia.com/news/Li-Io...s-217830.shtml

Probably true given the inventor already has a start-up based on the idea. The paper was recently published though, so I assumed it was new. Ah well.

[SolarVolt]

I'm glad the electric car revolution is starting. It really brings some demand to better battery technology. Not that demand wasn't there before, but now we have lots of companies wanting to pay $ for the best battery. This is helping to drive innovation in development. And this better battery technology will trickle into lots of other areas.

[jeffhre]

Probably true given the inventor already has a start-up based on the idea. The paper was recently published though, so I assumed it was new. Ah well.

This is actually very good news, because in the 2007 2008 time frame Yi Cui and his Stanford associates were only achieving about 30 recharge cycles prior to structural degradation. 6000 charge cycles would mean a Volt battery 40% smaller and capable of a lifetime of over 400,000 miles!

"Batteries containing these double-walled silicon nanotube anodes exhibit charge capacities approximately eight times larger than conventional carbon anodes and charging rates of up to 20C (a rate of 1C corresponds to complete charge or discharge in one hour)." All in all it's amazing news and one of those I'll have to see it in mass production to truly believe it kind of advances.

20C charge rate? Wow, if it can be done with production batteries that is. And they still don't seem to be working on the cathode side at all here.