[extropy-chat] Nanobatteries

[John]

Don't know if anyone else has noticed this yet but there's an article here;
http://www.physorg.com/news3539.html

It's not nanosized batteries, it's a regular lithium-ion prismatic battery 
with nano particles on the cathode that soak up the lithium ions and prevent 
the cell from loosing electrolyte during heating.

What's impressive is the performance you can achieve with the enhanced 
cathode. Recharge times of 1 minute! 1% cell degradation after 1,000 charge 
cycles, that's twenty times better than NiMH if my memory is right 
(seriously impressive - that would realistically mean one battery per 
product lifetime). If you've ever considered the practicalities of designing 
high quality, portable electronics, you'll know how good these 
specifications are.

I'd be interested to know more about the pulse performance of these. If 
they're better than regular lithium-ions, it could be a good challenge for 
the supercapacitor enhanced regular cells (supercapacitors leak charge from 
the cell during storage) - especially where volume is an issue. Pulse 
performance is particularly important if the cell is powering a switch mode 
supply, where amp sized pulsing transients can be drawn to drive the 
magnetics for supplies outputting much lower currents. In that example, the 
battery has a tendancy to go 'flat' as soon as the impedance increases just 
enough to reduce the pulses below the regulation cutoff point. Or in 
electric cars where you need the huge pulse to produce interia during 
acceleration. I think these will almost certainly contend with fuel cells in 
lots of portable applications.

Reminds me of computer games. Being able to plug into wall mounted chargers 
whilst you're out and about and juice your PDA up for 10p.

Very cool.

John 




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