Most mobile devices run on lithium batteries. This power source has many advantages and disadvantages. One of the drawbacks is the degradation of the battery in operation. Researchers at the University of California have invented a battery based on nanowires that can be recharged without loss of capacity thousands of times.
Researchers from the University of California in Irvine has opened the possibility of establishing sources of supply, the lifetime of which is much more traditional. After more than 200,000 cycles they lose only 5% of the original capacity. According to scientists, the invention can lead to the creation of “eternal” batteries that can extend the life of smartphones, tablets, laptops and other equipment.
Scientists have long sought to use the nanowires in batteries. Being a thousand times thinner than a human hair, it has a high conductivity and a large surface area for electron transport. However, these threads are very fragile and do not withstand repeated charging cycles. In a typical lithium-ion battery they dilate, which leads to the formation of cracks. The problem was solved by coating the gold nanowires with the shell of manganese dioxide is placed in a gel electrolyte. The battery case is made of Plexiglas. The combination of reliable and fault-tolerant.
Interestingly, scientists initially did not set a goal to create an “eternal” battery. They worked to develop batteries with solid electrolyte are safer than modern batteries with liquid electrolyte, which do not tolerate heat and are explosive. They created a prototype, as it turned out, almost loses capacity. Moreover, the explanation of this effect, scientists don’t have.
Conducted cyclic testing up to 200,000 charges for three months, not found any loss of power or the destruction of the nanowires. The usual battery of similar design “dies” after 5000 to 7000 cycles.
Development is far from serial production, for which it is generally too expensive. But, according to the participants of the project, the situation may change, if instead of gold will use more of the available metal, for example, Nickel.
