Battery Tech

Ever wonder why your laptop battery gets worse at holding a charge over time? What exactly is going on in the world of battery technology? Who is responsible for the next big breakthrough? My job seems to entail wondering about such things that people would otherwise not consider. Without further ado, lets just get right into it.

There are generally three types of common batteries:

• Alkaline (standard)
• Zinc-Chloride (heavy duty)
  
• Nickel Metal Hydride (rechargeable)

In a nutshell, an internal chemical reaction creates electrons that, when connected to something, such as a light bulb, will travel through the battery to the bulb and power it up. However, the reaction only occurs when the positive and negative terminals are connected to each other. This explains why batteries have long shelf-lives because without the chemical reaction, there are no electrons flowing.

Also, due to the chemical reaction that occurs in every battery, the only way to make a battery last longer is to make it bigger. However, we are trying to make everything (well...almost everything) smaller!

To make a battery that is smaller and lasts longer, we have to veer away from the chemical reaction process that is the norm these days. A new Texas startup called EEStor is doing just that. The exact workings of the batteries they are trying to produce are vague but what we do know is that they are making batteries that are a type of ultracapacitor hybrid based on barium-titanate powders. So what exactly does that mean? Yeah, I'm waiting for that explanation too, but the system is claimed to increase performance and power output by a factor of ten.

The next breakthrough occurred at Stanford University where research led by Yi Cui, assistant professor of materials science and engineering, has figured out a way to make Lithium-Ion batteries (commonly found in laptops and cellphones) produce ten times the amount of electricity as standard lithium ion batteries. This means they could also last up to 20 hours longer than regular batteries. The technology behind this is based on nano-technology.

Image source: Stanford University

Millions of silicon nano fibers that are about 1000 times smaller than the thickness of a strand of hair are used to capture electricity. They swell up to about 10 times their size when they store electricity and can last much longer than today's batteries.

Advancements such as the ones described above make it possible for us to create next-generation gadgets and devices that can stay on longer between charging. Such advancements also propel the alternative energy industry as more batteries are being used in automobiles everyday.