Renewable Revolution

Megan Treacy (@mtreacy)
Technology / Gadgets
 May 2, 2016

SNIPPET:

A typical lithium-ion battery starts to deteriorate after a few thousand charge cycles because lithium deposits build up on the electrodes and cause the battery to lose the ability to hold a charge. For this new battery, the researchers used nanowires, which are highly conductive and have a large surface area, making them great at holding charge as electrodes.

Nanowire are very fragile though and the abuse of charge/discharge cycles breaks them down quickly. To prevent that, the researchers coated a gold nanowire in a manganese dioxide shell and encased the assembly in a Plexiglas-like gel electrolyte.

The gel coating was just an experiment, an afterthought, but when they tested it they found that the device was able to go through 200,000 cycles without any loss of capacity or any damage to the nanowire.   

“That was crazy,” said Reginald Penner, chair of UCI’s chemistry department and researcher on the project, “because these things typically die in dramatic fashion after 5,000 or 6,000 or 7,000 cycles at most.”

The coated electrode was able to hold its shape better than one without a coating and the researchers think that the think the gel plasticizes the metal oxide in the battery giving it flexibility and preventing any fractures.

http://www.treehugger.com/gadgets/researchers-create-incredible-everlasting-battery.html


Agelbert NOTE: I am CERTAIN the fossil fuel industry will do whatever it can to suppress this massive Renewable energy breakthrough because this technology means  ZERO storage limitations for EVs powered from Renewable Energy harvesting technologies like wind and solar AND ZERO NEED for gasoline powered vehicles.