Self-Charging Lithium Ion Battery – Thank You Georgia Tech - Gas 2 Georgia Tech has made a self-charging lithium ion battery. This could be a major breakthrough for the electric vehicle (EV) industry, if it can be economized and applied to the auto industry. Researchers at Georgia Tech started with a simple, coin sized, lithium ion battery and replaced the dividers between the electrodes with a polyvinylidene difluoride film. The films piezoelectric nature makes a charging action inside that gap through just a little pressure with no outside voltage required. Basically, you push on the battery and it charges itself. The developers tested the battery by placing it in the sole of a shoe; just walking kept the battery charged. Think about integrating this self-charging lithium ion battery technology into an EV. This takes the idea of regenerative braking to a whole new level. There would be no need to worry about finding a charging station. Hybrids and other fossil fuel vehicles would be a thing of the past. You could continually drive without having to stop to fuel up. The fuels costs for shipping would no longer exist. The list goes on. Gas 2.0 (http://s.tt/1oOLZ)

Self-Charging Lithium Ion Battery – Thank You Georgia Tech - Gas 2

Georgia Tech has made a self-charging lithium ion battery. This could be a major breakthrough for the electric vehicle (EV) industry, if it can be economized and applied to the auto industry.

Researchers at Georgia Tech started with a simple, coin sized, lithium ion battery and replaced the dividers between the electrodes with a polyvinylidene difluoride film. The films piezoelectric nature makes a charging action inside that gap through just a little pressure with no outside voltage required. Basically, you push on the battery and it charges itself.

The developers tested the battery by placing it in the sole of a shoe; just walking kept the battery charged.

Think about integrating this self-charging lithium ion battery technology into an EV. This takes the idea of regenerative braking to a whole new level. There would be no need to worry about finding a charging station. Hybrids and other fossil fuel vehicles would be a thing of the past. You could continually drive without having to stop to fuel up. The fuels costs for shipping would no longer exist. The list goes on.


Gas 2.0 (http://s.tt/1oOLZ)

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Battery breakthrough could bring electric cars to all |  GigaOM A startup working on battery technology says it’s developed a key breakthrough that could one day lead to an electric car that has a 300-mile range and could cost around $25,000 to $30,000. Envia Systems, backed by venture capitalists, General Motors, and the Department of Energy, plans to announce on Monday at the ARPA-E conference that the company has created a lithium ion battery that has an energy density of 400 watt-hours per kilogram, which Envia CEO Atul Kapadia told me in an interview could be the tipping point for bringing electric cars to mainstream car owner. The secret sauce Energy density is how much energy a battery can store and provide for the car with a given battery size — the more energy dense the battery, the less volume and weight is needed. For electric cars it is particularly important to have a high energy dense battery because electric cars need to be as light weight as possible (any extra weight just drains the battery faster), and batteries that are smaller and use less materials can also be lower in cost

Battery breakthrough could bring electric cars to all |  GigaOM

A startup working on battery technology says it’s developed a key breakthrough that could one day lead to an electric car that has a 300-mile range and could cost around $25,000 to $30,000. Envia Systems, backed by venture capitalists, General Motors, and the Department of Energy, plans to announce on Monday at the ARPA-E conference that the company has created a lithium ion battery that has an energy density of 400 watt-hours per kilogram, which Envia CEO Atul Kapadia told me in an interview could be the tipping point for bringing electric cars to mainstream car owner.

The secret sauce

Energy density is how much energy a battery can store and provide for the car with a given battery size — the more energy dense the battery, the less volume and weight is needed. For electric cars it is particularly important to have a high energy dense battery because electric cars need to be as light weight as possible (any extra weight just drains the battery faster), and batteries that are smaller and use less materials can also be lower in cost

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Future gadget batteries could last 10 times longer | GigaOm Batteries continue to be the bane of mobile devices, but research done at Northwestern University could change that with longer lasting batteries that charge in minutes, not hours. The new science shouldn’t increase the size of batteries, but instead modifies the chemical reaction that takes place inside lithium-ion power packs, allowing for 10 times the capacity, says PC Mag. Don’t run out to the store looking for these batteries just yet, though: They’re not expected to hit the market for 3 to 5 years. According to Northwestern’s Professor Harold Kung, the longer-lasting batteries take advantage of two new processes. First, the number of lithium-ion atoms in the battery’s electrode are boosted by using silicon in place of carbon between sheets of graphene in the battery. It sounds complicated, but the gist is this: Silicon works 24 times more efficiently with lithium ions compared to carbon, which is used in traditional batteries. Second, the research team scored the graphine sheets with microscopic holes, allowing the lithium ions to travel faster within the battery. These techniques improve both the recharge time and density of lithium ions, which equates to longer-lasting batteries with fast recharge times; perhaps as little as 15 minutes.

Future gadget batteries could last 10 times longer | GigaOm

Batteries continue to be the bane of mobile devices, but research done at Northwestern University could change that with longer lasting batteries that charge in minutes, not hours. The new science shouldn’t increase the size of batteries, but instead modifies the chemical reaction that takes place inside lithium-ion power packs, allowing for 10 times the capacity, says PC Mag. Don’t run out to the store looking for these batteries just yet, though: They’re not expected to hit the market for 3 to 5 years.

According to Northwestern’s Professor Harold Kung, the longer-lasting batteries take advantage of two new processes. First, the number of lithium-ion atoms in the battery’s electrode are boosted by using silicon in place of carbon between sheets of graphene in the battery. It sounds complicated, but the gist is this: Silicon works 24 times more efficiently with lithium ions compared to carbon, which is used in traditional batteries.

Second, the research team scored the graphine sheets with microscopic holes, allowing the lithium ions to travel faster within the battery. These techniques improve both the recharge time and density of lithium ions, which equates to longer-lasting batteries with fast recharge times; perhaps as little as 15 minutes.

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The Battery of the Future What is the future of battery materials and construction? Batteries have the potential to more efficiently power our portable devices, fuel our vehicles, and disrupt the way the electric grid works. But advances in battery technology have been slow to respond to the power demands of modern life. Moore’s Law sees computer chips double in performance and drop their price by 50 percent every 18 to 24 months. But batteries adhere to much slower experience curves that typically see them double in performance perhaps every ten years. The stubborn refusal of battery materials to yield in price and size explains the high cost of electric vehicles and grid storage sneijers:

The Battery of the Future

What is the future of battery materials and construction?

Batteries have the potential to more efficiently power our portable devices, fuel our vehicles, and disrupt the way the electric grid works. But advances in battery technology have been slow to respond to the power demands of modern life.

Moore’s Law sees computer chips double in performance and drop their price by 50 percent every 18 to 24 months. But batteries adhere to much slower experience curves that typically see them double in performance perhaps every ten years. The stubborn refusal of battery materials to yield in price and size explains the high cost of electric vehicles and grid storage

sneijers:

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Nanowire Batteries To Serve as Power Source for Nanobots Researchers at Rice University have built a rechargeable battery inside a single nanowire that’s 150nm (0.15 micron) in diameter. The researchers haven’t built just one, either: they’ve created an entire centimeter-scale array of thousands of nanowire batteries. Each nanowire is a completely discrete battery, consisting of all the usual elements: anode, cathode, and electrolyte. While transparent batteries will be useful for consumer-oriented gadgets, nanowire batteries are more significant because they can power nanobots. To power tiny devices you need tiny batteries, and that’s exactly what nanowire batteries are. If you like the concept of whole fleets of nanobots fixing and cleaning bridges and buildings (and spaceships), then nanowire batteries are what we need. Likewise, if you one day want a swarm of nanobots coursing through your blood and acting as platelets, white blood cells, and generally acting as groundskeepers, then this invention from Rice University is very exciting indeed. (via The rechargeable nanowire battery that makes nanobots possible | ExtremeTech) via joshbyard:

Nanowire Batteries To Serve as Power Source for Nanobots

Researchers at Rice University have built a rechargeable battery inside a single nanowire that’s 150nm (0.15 micron) in diameter. The researchers haven’t built just one, either: they’ve created an entire centimeter-scale array of thousands of nanowire batteries. Each nanowire is a completely discrete battery, consisting of all the usual elements: anode, cathode, and electrolyte.

While transparent batteries will be useful for consumer-oriented gadgets, nanowire batteries are more significant because they can power nanobots. To power tiny devices you need tiny batteries, and that’s exactly what nanowire batteries are. If you like the concept of whole fleets of nanobots fixing and cleaning bridges and buildings (and spaceships), then nanowire batteries are what we need. Likewise, if you one day want a swarm of nanobots coursing through your blood and acting as platelets, white blood cells, and generally acting as groundskeepers, then this invention from Rice University is very exciting indeed.

(via The rechargeable nanowire battery that makes nanobots possible | ExtremeTech)

via joshbyard:

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New battery design could give electric vehicles a jolt A radically new approach to the design of batteries, developed by researchers at MIT, could provide a lightweight and inexpensive alternative to existing batteries for electric vehicles and the power grid. The technology could even make “refueling” such batteries as quick and easy as pumping gas into a conventional car. The new battery relies on an innovative architecture called a semi-solid flow cell, in which solid particles are suspended in a carrier liquid and pumped through the system. In this design, the battery’s active components — the positive and negative electrodes, or cathodes and anodes — are composed of particles suspended in a liquid electrolyte. These two different suspensions are pumped through systems separated by a filter, such as a thin porous membrane. Source: Physorg.com

New battery design could give electric vehicles a jolt

A radically new approach to the design of batteries, developed by researchers at MIT, could provide a lightweight and inexpensive alternative to existing batteries for electric vehicles and the power grid. The technology could even make “refueling” such batteries as quick and easy as pumping gas into a conventional car.

The new battery relies on an innovative architecture called a semi-solid flow cell, in which solid particles are suspended in a carrier liquid and pumped through the system. In this design, the battery’s active components — the positive and negative electrodes, or cathodes and anodes — are composed of particles suspended in a liquid electrolyte. These two different suspensions are pumped through systems separated by a filter, such as a thin porous membrane.

Source: Physorg.com

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Squeezing More Energy Out of Batteries - Technology Review

Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) has developed a new printing technology that promises to pack more energy into batteries for electric vehicles. By printing a striped pattern of energy storage materials and highly conductive materials, researchers at PARC are making electrodes that are much thicker than those in conventional batteries. These could increase battery storage capacity by 10 to 30 percent while costing little more to manufacture, says Scott Elrod, director of the Hardware Systems Laboratory at PARC. The technology could also apply to metal-air batteries that could store far more energy than anything on the market today.

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IBM Next 5 in 5 — 2010 (via IBMLabs)

IBM’s at it again, predicting the future.  Their next 5 in 5 is out and it’s got some interesting predictions.

My favorite is the one about the 3D holograms.   I would love my own hologram.  For example, this would solve an interesting work at home vs. work at work conundrum I’ve had. I could have my hologram sit inside the flourescent lit cube zones while I enjoy my cozy, quiet, hyper-productive home office.  Or, if you have kids jumping all over you at home and use the office cube as an escape, you could have your hologram hang out at home during the day.  Lots of possibilities there.

Check out the video they’ve put together to illustrate their predictions and let me know which one is your favorite.   Or, do you have a prediction of your own you would like to share?  If so, please do.

Also, Bloomberg has a good article on the 5 in 5 that you should take a look at:  IBM Expects to See Holographic Phone Calls, Air-Powered Batteries by 2015.

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Technology Review: Doubling Lithium-Ion Battery Storage Battery startup Amprius says it has developed batteries capable of storing twice as much energy as anything on the market today, thanks to nanostructured silicon electrodes. The company says it is partnering with several as-yet unnamed major consumer electronics manufacturers to bring the batteries to market by early 2012. The batteries will allow portable electronics to run 40 percent longer without a recharge.

Technology Review: Doubling Lithium-Ion Battery Storage

Battery startup Amprius says it has developed batteries capable of storing twice as much energy as anything on the market today, thanks to nanostructured silicon electrodes. The company says it is partnering with several as-yet unnamed major consumer electronics manufacturers to bring the batteries to market by early 2012. The batteries will allow portable electronics to run 40 percent longer without a recharge.

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Using carbon nanotubes in lithium batteries dramatically improves energy capacity | MIT Batteries might gain a boost in power capacity as a result of a new finding from researchers at MIT. They found that using carbon nanotubes for one of the battery’s electrodes produced a significant increase — up to tenfold — in the amount of power it could deliver from a given weight of material, compared to a conventional lithium-ion battery. Such electrodes might find applications in small portable devices, and with further research might also lead to improved batteries for larger, more power-hungry applications.

Using carbon nanotubes in lithium batteries dramatically improves energy capacity | MIT

Batteries might gain a boost in power capacity as a result of a new finding from researchers at MIT. They found that using carbon nanotubes for one of the battery’s electrodes produced a significant increase — up to tenfold — in the amount of power it could deliver from a given weight of material, compared to a conventional lithium-ion battery. Such electrodes might find applications in small portable devices, and with further research might also lead to improved batteries for larger, more power-hungry applications.

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“I’m not doing this because I want another journal publication. It’s about making a difference. It’s an opportunity to invent our way out of the energy problem.”

Quote by Professor Donald Sadoway, MIT, talking about his research in energy storage that could help speed the development of renewable energy.  See MIT News article: Liquid battery big enough for the electric grid?Liquid Batttery

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“Dana Holding Corporation has developed a heat exchanger designed to extend battery life in hybrid and electric vehicles. The technology, the first of its kind, recently debuted on Tesla Motors’ 2010 all-electric Roadster Sport.”

Industry-First Battery Cooling Technology for Electric Vehicles - Green Wheels | Auto123

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The Battery 500 Project: The Future of Electric Vehicles from http://asmarterplanet.com.

Today, a vast majority of the worlds oil is burned for transportation. Energy sources such as wind, geothermal and solar power, fluctuate continuously and can do little to reduce oil consumption unless the energy produced can be harnessed and stored.  (via IBMSocialMedia)

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