Batteries are cool – they allow you to carry your electronic gadgets around and use them while on the go. Heck, they even allow you to start your car in the morning! Can you imagine a world without batteries today?
As with everything else, though, batteries have downsides – they discharge, which means you won’t be able to use your gadgets indefinitely, and they wear out, which means you will have to replace them on a regular basis. This is definitely not cool but help seems to be on the way – a team of scientists who hail from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Tsinghua University, which happens to be located in China, have developed a new nanoparticle battery electrode that comes with an egg-like design. The electrode has been designed to last and this is the main perk of the new technology. Here’s how it works – the electrode houses a shape-changing aluminum “yolk” in a titanium dioxide cell. The whole thing can go through charging cycles without degrading unlike the graphite electrodes in “normal” batteries. The new technology will not only prolong battery life – it will also allow increases in battery capacity and maximum power. This means that in the near future you won’t be forced to replace your battery and even if you have to do that, the time periods between changes will significantly increase.batter
The new battery is still in the lab but its manufacturing should be easy and the materials needed are abundant and not expensive. There’s no information on whether this technology will be in stores but we imagine we will see it inside smartphones, notebooks and tablets by the end of the decade or shortly after.
Source: Engadget.com