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wiredInUSA - May 2016
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Batteries with an almost unlimited lifespan
could become a reality using a new
nanowire-based material. The material,
developed by a team from University of
California, uses manganese dioxide to
protect gold nanowires in a Plexiglas-like
electrolyte gel.
In tests, the material demonstrated
consistent
capacity
over
200,000
recharge cycles. “These things typically
die in dramatic fashion after 5,000 or 6,000
or 7,000 cycles at most,” said Reginald
Penner, senior author of a study published
in the latest issue of the journal American
Chemical Society’s Energy Letters.
Gold nanowires have been tried in
batteries before, but scientists usually
found that the filaments – thousands of
times thinner than a human hair – will
crack and grow brittle with repeated
charging and discharging. The gel makes
the nanowires more flexible, which
prevents cracking.
Mr Penner, who oversaw the experiments
of PhD student Mya Le Thai, said the
discovery was made by chance. “Mya
was playing around and she coated
this whole thing with a very thin gel layer
and started to cycle it,” said Mr Penner,
chair of UCI’s chemistry department. “She
discovered that just by using this gel, she
could cycle it hundreds of thousands of
times without losing any capacity.”
“The coated electrode holds its shape
much better, making it a more reliable
option,” added the student. “This research
proves that a nanowire-based battery
electrode can have a long lifetime and
that we can make these kinds of batteries
a reality.”
Long-life
batteries
wiredInUSA - May 2016
INDEX11