It is good to rub and polish our brain against that of others - De Montaigne
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UK firm announces battery breakthrough
A LITTLE-KNOWN BRITISH COMPANY has developed a silicon anode that it says can increase the capacity of a Lithium-ion battery by up to 30 per cent.
Nexeon, a spin-off from London's Imperial College, says manufacturers can simply use the anode in existing battery designs and production lines as a slot-in replacement for conventional carbon designs.
Products using the new anode could be on the market within a year, but two to three years is more likely, according to Nexeon's engineering director, Ian McDonald.
"At the moment people are scratching about to get two to three percent improvements in battery performance. So to get a 25-to-30 percent improvement is a great step forward," McDonald said.
That translates to five or more hours of work-time from a laptop battery the size of one that lasts four hours using current Li-ion designs.
Silicon offers ten times the charge densities of carbon but to date it has not been used in anodes because it becomes physically unstable when repeatedly charged and discharged. Nexeon has got round this problem by using silicon with patented microstructures.
The company has been working "in stealth mode" since it was formed in 2006. "We have been filing patents and we did not want to draw attention to ourselves until we had got them," McDonald said.
"This is a very active area and as soon as people latch on to what you are doing they start filing patents in the same area. Now we have filed the patents and we are ready to commercialise. So we are putting our heads above the parapet."
The company is talking to both battery vendors and potential manufacturers of the anode. It already has a pilot plant testing production techniques and might manufacture the anodes itself.
Other companies are also trying to use silicon anodes but McDonald says some of the rival technology requires exotic production techniques. He reckons Nexeon has the edge in simplicity of production and price - its anodes are 'cost competitive' with carbon,
Charging times are also on a par with carbon and the technology can be used in batteries of all sizes and capacities, including those used for power tools and electric vehicles. µ
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The more affordable Tesla 4 door sedan is to materialize in 2011. The electric sports car with the body/suspension by Lotus is being produced but costs over $US100,000 new nifty interior and all.
This new Li-ion battery should be available by then and would easily extend the car's range from San Francisco to Los Angeles and a bit - a major plus for practicality in California and electric cars in general including the sports car. I hope Tesla is on top of this development though I don't know who their battery supplier is.
Inventing the future is a lot better than just surviving in it.....
There are atleast dozen mind blowing battery projects running cheating/copying one other, tweaking fundamentals or evolutionary move towards nano-tech. Google battery powered Humvees. 16,800mah phone battery (lion king battery) and 2000$ 20 kilowatt-hours battery powering a house for full day. http://www.popularmechanics.com/home_journal/home_improvement/4326258.html?link=emb&dom=msn_re&src=syn&con=art&mag=pop
"That translates to five or more hours of work-time from a laptop battery the size of one that lasts four hours using current Li-ion designs. "
Call me a cynic, but I can't help but think they'll use this to make batteries smaller to cut costs (and weight) while keeping the same run time.
So with this and the nano coated cathode in development offering another 50% improvement and then with improved Lithium sulphide batteries.
We could be easily getting 24 hour batteries for our laptops and gadgets.
for a moment there I almost thought we were gonna stall on li-ion for, like, ever. Yey!!!
As an American I'll give you all a cheer.
Sadly, the likes of Sony will be the ones making the big profits, while the Brits get a few dollars worth of licensing fees... which they will then spend on Japanese cars and Japanese TVs and Christmas presents made in China. Plus you'll have to pay more than the rest of the world. Hardly seems fair.
Remember, the Brits patented the tin can (clever chaps) and three years an American patented a tin can opener. :) Two heads (of state) can be better than one. Maybe together we can find out how to get the cash back into Western hands, and we'll be 'real' geniuses!
Good on them! What's the chance of something that's as game changing as this not being mentioned in the mainstream press? Little bit of good news goes a long way....
Now stick that in an ARM netbook and you've got 12 hours of British ingenuity
This is good news, and good indication of the future of electrical devices.
Thinking specifically of the electric car, presently we're enjoying something like a 150mile range, which is okay, but still doesn't make for a replacement fossil fuel. 200 to 250 miles, and we're making tracks.