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from the it-keeps-going-and-going-and-going-and-going-and-going.... dept.
Zhongwei Chen, a chemical engineering professor at Waterloo, and a team of graduate students have created a low-cost battery using silicon that boosts the performance and life of lithium-ion batteries. Their findings are published in the latest issue of Nature Communications .
Waterloo's silicon battery technology promises a 40 to 60 per cent increase in energy density, which is important for consumers with smartphones, smart homes and smart wearables.
The environmentally safe technology could also make dramatic improvements for hybrid and electric vehicles. The findings could mean an electric car may be driven up to 500 kilometres between charges and the smaller, lighter batteries may significantly reduce the overall weight of vehicles.
Current lithium-ion batteries normally use graphite anodes. The Waterloo engineers found that silicon anode materials have a much higher capacity for lithium and are capable of producing batteries with almost 10 times more energy.
(Score: 2) by AnonTechie on Thursday October 29 2015, @06:36PM
Leap in Lithium-Air Battery Tech Could Supercharge Electric Cars [ieee.org]
The operative word is "Could".
Albert Einstein - "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
(Score: 2) by AnonTechie on Thursday October 29 2015, @06:45PM
Some more info on this:
[Also Covered By]: Phys.org [phys.org]
[Abstract]: Cycling Li-O2 batteries via LiOH formation and decomposition [sciencemag.org]
Albert Einstein - "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
(Score: 1) by WalksOnDirt on Friday October 30 2015, @02:59AM
That appears to be yet another battery breakthrough. Possibly much more important, but with a much longer time to market.