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After reading lots of nice high-tech ideas on how to improve the lifetime, capacity, and re-charge time of commercial batteries, it was interesting to read an article on how high-performance batteries can be built from scrap metal parts basically in a DIY manner. The targeted use-case is not so much laptops, mobile phones, or cars but rather storing energy from renewable sources like solar- or wind-power.
Take some metal scraps from the junkyard; put them in a glass jar with a common household chemical; and, voilà, you have a high-performance battery.
[...] The secret to unlocking this performance is anodization, a common chemical treatment used to give aluminum a durable and decorative finish. When scraps of steel and brass are anodized using a common household chemical and residential electrical current, the researchers found that the metal surfaces are restructured into nanometer-sized networks of metal oxide that can store and release energy when reacting with a water-based liquid electrolyte.
The team determined that these nanometer domains explain the fast charging behavior that they observed, as well as the battery's exceptional stability. They tested it for 5,000 consecutive charging cycles – the equivalent of over 13 years of daily charging and discharging – and found that it retained more than 90 percent of its capacity.
[...] "We're forging new ground with this project, where a positive outcome is not commercialization, but instead a clear set of instructions that can be addressed to the general public. It's a completely new way of thinking about battery research, and it could bypass the barriers holding back innovation in grid scale energy storage," Pint said.
Especially the last part is highly appealing to me. I'm not expert on the matter whatsoever, so I'm looking forward to reading comments on why this is too good to be true, and which caveats I overlooked. What do you think?
(Score: 3, Informative) by Fnord666 on Friday November 04 2016, @04:50AM
(Score: 3, Informative) by coolgopher on Friday November 04 2016, @05:34AM
That's just the "Supporting Information" pdf, alas. The main article appears thoroughly paywalled.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 04 2016, @05:55AM
Paywalled, just the way President Trump likes his internet.
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by choose another one on Friday November 04 2016, @09:43AM
Trump doesn't like to pay for anything, his internet would be walled with free pussy.
So, nothing like the actual internet then... :-)
(Score: 2) by q.kontinuum on Friday November 04 2016, @03:45PM
He likes walls, and he likes those who are locked out to pay for them. Sounds like a paywall to me. And since I can't imagine him reading any science- or even pseudo-science files, or anything at all beyond a picture book, these paywalls should be fine with him, since they don't affect him ;-)
Registered IRC nick on chat.soylentnews.org: qkontinuum
(Score: 2) by Fnord666 on Friday November 04 2016, @11:35AM
(Score: 2, Informative) by klondike0 on Friday November 04 2016, @07:00PM
Try these:
http://docdro.id/jhbkHcJ [docdro.id]
http://docdro.id/hrNYVKL [docdro.id]
I didn't like the CV curves too much, the Fe spikes aren't that close together in potential (affecting energy efficiency) and there's not much on the Cu side IMO. However, it could be a useful trick to McGuyver it when the shit hits the fan.