Dec 282007
Your Laptop to Operate for 20 Hours
Posted by: Sierra in News
Researchers at Stanford have managed to improve the Li-ion batteries making them capable to operate 10 times more.
For example, a battery that now lasts up to 2 hours in working time will operate for up to 20 hours.
These new batteries use Li-Ion and anodes with silicon nanowires, replacing the standard carbon.
According to Yi Cui, assistant professor of materials science and engineering, the researchers’ team leader, these batteries will be produced in mass very soon, due to the mature infrastructure behind the silicon.
Li-Ion batteries have a battery anode made from carbon and their life lasts until the electrical storage capacity is consumed, this depending on the amount of Lithium held in the battery’s anode, while the silicon has a higher capacity than carbon.
The drawback here is that as the silicon swells by absorbing positively charged lithium atoms during charging, and shrinks while in use, this affects the performance of the battery.
Cui’s solved this problem by using the nanotechnology.
The lithium is stored in a forest of tiny silicon nanowires with diameters of 1/1000 of the thickness of a sheet of paper, and as the nanowires inflate 4 times their normal size as they soak up lithium, they won’t fracture.
The systems that will implement this technology will include notebooks, iPods, mobile phones and video cameras.
You can read more here.
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Comments
5 Comment(s) on “Your Laptop to Operate for 20 Hours”
Jonas said on Jan 01 08 at 9:50 am:
when is the expected release date on the batteries and what is the price expected to be at.
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Jonas said on Jan 01 08 at 9:51 am:
like old lithium ion and lithium polymer batteries, do these batteries show any risks of exploding ar swelling
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Sierra said on Jan 01 08 at 5:26 pm:
During charging, the silicon is absorbing the positively charged lithium atoms and so the battery swells, but it starts to shrink when it is in use, during consuming, because the lithium is drawn out of the silicon.
After many swelling-shrinking cycles, the silicon pulverizes, degrading this way the battery’s performance, but Cui got a solution for this. He placed the lithium substance in tiny silicon nanowires, and although the nanowires inflate 4 times their normal size by absorbing the lithium, they won’t fracture.
According to the tests’ results, this type of battery can’t explode, they are secure, but maybe we have to wait and find out more information coming from other researchers. We should listen to them too, not only the battery’s manufacturer, right?
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Sierra said on Jan 01 08 at 5:31 pm:
Regarding the other question, the patent application has been filled but the company has to find a battery manufacturer to fill an agreement with. The manufacturing process is not that complicated and their plan is very well conceived, and clear. We are expecting these batteries to be produced in a few months.
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golfnorwich said on Jan 04 08 at 2:23 am:
This is very cool. now, will they be allowed on the plane so I play solitare all the way to Thailand?
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