APS: The batteries of tomorrow today
Every session that’s got something to do with either solar cells or batteries is jammed packed, and it’s not hard to imagine why: The US Department of Energy (DOE) is going to be throwing a lot of money at renewable energy in the weeks and months to come.
At a press conference yesterday, we got a little update on various battery technologies that could have a big impact in the not-too-distant future. First up was Mohit Singh of SEEO, Inc. and his former supervisor Nitash Balsara of the University of California at Berkeley. SEEO is working on replacing the liquid electrolyte that is used to transport lithium ions in many batteries with more rigid polymers. These dry batteries would have some important advantages over what’s in your laptop. First is safety, the rigid polymers are less volatile than their liquid brethren, and so they are less likely to overheat and catch fire. Additionally, they would not degrade over time, meaning that your computer battery could keep its charge over years of use. Finally, they would allow batteries to operate at higher voltages, and thus higher charges.
The second speaker was Hiroyuki Nishide, of Waseda University in Tokyo. He updated us on advances in a plastic battery that could store charge in organic molecules. This can be used to create lightweight flexible batteries that could store energy in more imaginative ways than our current generation of batteries (The plastic shell of your laptop, for example, could work as the battery). Additionally, these batteries, like the one we reported on last week, are also able to charge and discharge in seconds.
Like a lot of recent advances in batteries, neither of these technologies are quite ready for prime time. Singh’s cells still require ultra long charging times to fill up with juice, and Nishide’s polymers don’t have the energy density needed to be used commercially. But they’re yet another sign that the battery business is booming.
Comments
Is your lede possibly unduly cynical? Surely it is conceivable that physicists want to do some good, and see batteries and solar cells as a means to that end?
Posted by: Oliver | March 18, 2009 12:18 PM