"new paradigm in thinking about a battery in three dimensions for enhancing properties"

[kristopher]

New Battery Structure Improves Charging and Energy Storage Capacity
by Energy Matters
New Battery Structure
Researchers at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign have developed a 3d nanostructure for battery cathodes that permits far faster charging and discharging without sacrificing energy storage capacity.

While supercapacitor batteries already have fast charging attributes, it's at the expense of storage. According to Paul Braun, a professor of materials science and engineering, the system his team has developed provides capacitor-type power with the energy attributes of deep cycle batteries.

Braun’s group have demonstrated battery electrodes that can charge or discharge in a few seconds, up to 100 times faster than equivalent bulk electrodes, yet can perform normally in existing devices.

This technology ...

http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=1413

[old mark]

1. K&R-Good news-important for many applications.I wonder how long before someone

actually produces it...


mark

[kristopher]

2. It is going to be incorporated into other techs in the pipeline, I believe...

For example, this which is now in the process of manufacturing development, is based on improvements to the anode, but they were confronted by limitations with the cathode:

Nanowire battery can hold 10 times the charge of existing lithium-ion battery
Courtesy Nature Nanotechnology silicon nanowires
BY DAN STOBER

Stanford researchers have found a way to use silicon nanowires to reinvent the rechargeable lithium-ion batteries that power laptops, iPods, video cameras, cell phones, and countless other devices.

The new technology, developed through research led by Yi Cui, assistant professor of materials science and engineering, produces 10 times the amount of electricity of existing lithium-ion, known as Li-ion, batteries. A laptop that now runs on battery for two hours could operate for 20 hours, a boon to ocean-hopping business travelers.

"It's not a small improvement," Cui said. "It's a revolutionary development."...

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2008/january9/nanowire-010908.html


Research aimed at this level of battery performance is just now starting to gain real traction. It shouldn't be long before batteries capable of rapid charging with enough capacity to easily drive several hundred miles will be just a part of the landscape.

[old mark]

3. This will really help with electric cars-hope we make them in the US...nt

[txlibdem]

4. Said to be easily scaled up for mass production

From the OP's link: "The processes used to construct the battery are also currently utilised in the battery industry, so the technique could be scaled up for manufacturing."

I hope they make it to mass production.

[Canuckistanian]

5. If it really works, this is the Holy Grail of batteries

Capacitors are outstanding at delivering power FAST, but can't store a charge for long. And batteries have internal resistance that limits high current flow without overheating.

This may have the best qualities of both of them.

[OKIsItJustMe]

6. Fast-recharge, lithium-ion battery could be perfect for electric cars

http://portal.acs.org/portal/acs/corg/content?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=PP_ARTICLEMAIN&node_id=222&content_id=CNBP_026966&use_sec=true&sec_url_var=region1&__uuid=f4a7d7c7-8dfd-4d93-a15f-b90ad833e7d0

Fast-recharge, lithium-ion battery could be perfect for electric cars

Note to journalists: Please report that this research was presented at a meeting of the American Chemical Society

ANAHEIM March 30, 2011 — The next-generation battery, like next-generation TV, may be 3-D, scientists reported here today at the 241st National Meeting and Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS). They described a new lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery, already available in a prototype version, with a three-dimensional interior architecture that could be perfect for the electric cars now appearing in auto dealer showrooms.

The 3-D Li-ion battery recharges in minutes, rather than hours, and could bring closer the day in which electric cars can recharge as quickly as gas-powered vehicles “fill it up” at the pump. The 3-D format could be the basis for more powerful, longer-lasting batteries for scores of other rechargeable electronic devices, scientists said.

Study leader Amy Prieto, Ph.D., said the research team has a 3-D prototype, about the size of a cell phone battery, that takes about 12 minutes to recharge compared to two hours for a conventional lithium-ion battery. The battery also can be discharged over twice as many times as a conventional lithium ion battery at high discharge rates, she added.

“The time needed to recharge cell phones, laptops and other electronics products certainly can be an occasional nuisance,” Prieto noted. “However, it certainly doesn’t keep anyone from buying these products. Recharge time may be a much more important factor for electric cars. You make a rest stop on the turnpike, and you want to recharge quickly, just like you fill-it-up at the gas pump. It’s going to take a new generation of batteries to do so, and we hope our 3-D battery is poised to be at the forefront. If our battery works to its potential, it could be the ideal battery for an electric car.”

…