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Li-Ion With 300% More Power, Minutes to Recharge

Battery Nut writes "Altair Nanotechnologies claims to have found a way to reduce Li-Ion recharge time to minutes, as well as increase battery power by 300%, according to this press release. Seems they have received some good feedback by certain experts about thier work: "Two eminent experts in battery technology, Dr. K. M. Abraham and Dr. Vassilis G. Keramidas, have expressed strong support for Altair's work. " So is it a new revolution in battery technology, or hopeful hype? Stay tuned, their quarterly conference call is Thursday Feb 24th at 11AM." Anyone else think snake oil?

6 of 408 comments (clear)

  1. Slashdot: home of stock pumpers? by Takeel · · Score: 5, Insightful

    When did Slashdot start posting messages from stock pumpers?

  2. Actually, 200% more power by CrazyWingman · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Someone needs to go back to math class. The article actually says the batteries will have "three times the power" of today's batteries. That amounts to 200% more power, not 300% more.

  3. Re:Snakeoil???? by Dr.+Evil · · Score: 4, Insightful

    There's a whole school of daytraders who base their speculations on hype. Hype being more predicatble than innovation.

    The only question is... do you dump the stock before the conference call, or do you expect the hype to endure?

    But yeah, 6500mAh AA cells? Not in one press release.

  4. I think your math is wrong... by DarkMan · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't belive that the claim is that thier new batteries have three times the capacity of a current Li-ion battery. They are claiming three times the power, which I read as meaning that the peak discharge power is three times greater.

    This is a lot more reasonable, from my understanding of Li-ion batteries. The theoretical energy capacity isn't three times current batteries, IIRC, so trippling that is unreasonable. But three times the discharge rate is not impossible, and brings them into the range of NiMH batteries, maybe even Lead-Acid. Coupled with the superior energy density of Li-ion, that's very very nice.

    This matches well with the claim of faster charging - the limiting factors for charging and dischargeing are related in batteries.

    So, your sums become 4Ah in 5 minutes, or a much more reasonable 48 amps. A lot, yes, but not beyond what's currently done with medium current applications.

    Reading the press relase as I did above imedialty makes is much more reasonable, although I'd love to get more details. There's a lot hingeing on the word 'power', depending whether you read it in a technical or common definition, so much so that I wouldn't want to depend on it.

  5. "Two eminent experts' by exp(pi*sqrt(163)) · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Nobody writes a phrase like that unless they're bogus. That's the kind of language you get in endorsements for the latest diet fad or transcendental meditation technique.

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    Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
  6. Re:Snakeoil? by drinkypoo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'll just expect this battery to come with an internal fuse, instead.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"