Nov 24 2011
Everlasting Batteries?
Energy storage has long been a challenge in the energy sector, whether for electricity load balancing, increasing the viability of intermittent energy sources or transportation. Batteries are already currently used in the electricity sector, but are expensive and wear out quickly. Stanford University researchers have come up with a battery electrode that should last 40,000 charge/discharge cycles, or 30 years. Read more here.
http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/106539-stanford-creates-everlasting-nanoparticle-battery-electrode-free-water-based-electrolyte
One response so far
This is a little bit pie-in-the-sky. The write-up mentions that they still need an anode but doesn’t mention that the electrolyte they’re using is of dubious use for applications as any aqueous electrolyte is limited by the relatively low breakdown voltage of water. Still, the structure they got is interesting and it would be great if they (or someone else) could get it to work with a more useful redox couple.