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posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday May 24 2017, @02:43AM   Printer-friendly
from the good-enough dept.

Researchers at the University of Texas, including the 94-year-old John Goodenough, claim to have achieved up to five times better energy density in a solid lithium glass battery. The technology supposedly charges much faster than other batteries. One expert says that the battery's proposed mechanism violates the first law of thermodynamics:

At the center of this debate is a towering figure in the world of science — John Goodenough, who teaches material science at the university.

In 1980, his work led to the invention of the lithium-ion battery — now crucial to powering everything from cellphones and laptops to electric cars. For a lot of people, that would probably be enough. But at 94 years old, he's still at it. [...] Now, Goodenough and his team say they've created a new battery that may store up to five times more power than current ones. And, even better, such a battery would charge and recharge in a matter of minutes — all without exploding.

[...] Goodenough's team is using a solid — a lithium glass. In their paper [DOI: 10.1039/C6EE02888H] [DX], they say this glass along with a new design allows their battery to perform so much better. But many others are skeptical. "If you could accomplish what this paper claims, it would rewrite the way we think about chemistry," says Dan Steingart, a professor of mechanical engineering at Princeton. He says batteries are sealed, so it's hard to know what's really going on. And he doubts the team's interpretation of what's happening here. In fact, he says, the chemical ingredients shouldn't be storing any power, what he calls "anomalous capacity."

NOVA, which aired Search for the Super Battery in February, covered John Goodenough in March.

Daimler is investing half a billion euros in a lithium-ion battery factory:

Daimler didn't give any projections for its factory's potential capacity, but it did say that its investment would quadruple the size of an existing battery factory on the site, which is run by Accumotive, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Daimler. The German automaker is also pledging another €500 million to expand battery production worldwide. And if all goes well at the Kamenz site, Daimler says it will "go into operation in mid-2018."


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 24 2017, @02:58AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 24 2017, @02:58AM (#514643)

    Murdock isn't Goodenough for you?