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from the "good",-"fast",-"cheap"...pick-two dept.
Materials with a higher lithium ion storage capacity are either too heavy or the wrong shape to replace graphite, the electrode material currently used in today's batteries.
Purdue University scientists and engineers have introduced a potential way that these materials could be restructured into a new electrode design that would allow them to increase a battery's lifespan, make it more stable and shorten its charging time.
The study, appearing as the cover of the September issue of Applied Nano Materials, created a net-like structure, called a "nanochain," of antimony, a metalloid known to enhance lithium ion charge capacity in batteries.
The researchers compared the nanochain electrodes to graphite electrodes, finding that when coin cell batteries with the nanochain electrode were only charged for 30 minutes, they achieved double the lithium-ion capacity for 100 charge-discharge cycles.
(Score: 3, Informative) by bzipitidoo on Saturday September 21 2019, @11:49AM (2 children)
Short memory you have there. I remember NiCad batteries. Had to run them completely dry, to extend their life and maintain capacity. I still have a laptop with NiCads. Came with Windows 98. Lithium Ion is a lot better.
I take the optimistic view that with so many findings and advances, batteries will soon be good enough to make electric cars supreme. We're pretty close now.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 21 2019, @03:42PM (1 child)
Reading "a few years" and then waxing eloquent about how things were some DECADES ago. Is it one of those marketing innovations?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Pav on Sunday September 22 2019, @01:53AM
If you use battery power tools it's amazing how batteries have improved over even the last few years... cheaper, longer running, less prone to degradation and failure... even on the same tools (so it's not more efficient motors etc...).