New Battery Technology Powers For 12 Years

wellington map writes "University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists say they are developing a new lithium battery technology capable of making batteries smaller, last longer and, soon, accept a charge from outside the body without the need for surgery. These organosilicon batteries are projected to power tiny implantable devices for more than 12 years."

Comments

Blegh.

[FireballX301]

MADISON, Wis., Oct. 3 (UPI) -- University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists say they are developing super-charged tiny lithium batteries to help treat nervous system and other disorders.

Key word there, 'developing'. The article gives basically no information at all about how it works.

I remember a story about human-powered pacemakers and such though - did those pan out? Seems that those would be more useful than these low-current batteries.

Re:Blegh.

[Anonymous Coward]

Also the summary doesn't make sense without the word 'pacemaker' in there somewhere. I had to actually read the article!

Re:Blegh.

[Elrac]

The grandparent is mildly funny but not a bit insightful, probably because the poster is unaware of the physics behind static electricity.

First, the idea of using static electricity to power devices inside a human is pretty hard to implement because in order to be useful, a device would need to be connected to both of the mutually charged components, and that potential difference will have to be transformed into DC at the battery's voltage of around 1-9 V.

Whichever piece of clothing is on the person's skin will have the same potential as that person, whose body is highly conductive as far as static electricity is concerned. That takes care of one side, as our device is already very well connected to the human.

So how will one gain access to the charge on the other piece of clothing? Have the person wear a layer of tinfoil over the outer garment? Sounds less than practical in the summertime. Have him drag a metal chain over any carpets he walks over? Folks, we're trying to improve quality of life here, not worsen it.

Now, having a charge of a few microcoulombs with a potential difference of maybe 20,000 volts, how are we going to transform it to a usefully large current at battery voltage? Hint: Transformers need AC to work, not DC. The microelectronics used to chop up DC into AC hate high voltages.

There's a reason why there are no (or virtually no) applications that use lightning or static electricity as an energy source.

More info from source

[Peregr1n]

Information on this from the university itself can be found here (not much info, but more technical than the article)

I'm no EE, but...

[No Salvation]

What I want to see are giant Telsa coils at airports, restaurants, etc. that shoot bolts of electricity out and recharge people's pacemakers. What could possibly go wrong?

Re:Where's the nearest surgeon?

[Anonymous Writer]

Where's the nearest surgeon?

You don't need a surgeon. Just lube. And make sure your Mini is in a protective case.

Would be good for cochlear implants

[Anonymous Coward]

Buying & changing batteries for people like me with a cochlear implant is a major pain - something like this would be fantastic.

Step backwards

[dustrider]

Best thing I've seen for implanted devices, such as cochlear implants is an article from two years ago by some japanese researchers than managed to build a fuel cell based on blood.

It mimics the processes of mitochondria in human cells, i.e. uses glucose and O2 to create some form of ionisation.

So why have a battery that expires in 12 years when you could just have something that is indeffinately powered by your own body processes, and lose a little weight in the process.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/08/03/10598492 78131.html

Re:Where's the nearest surgeon?

[StarfishOne]

You forget the fact that some people will get an allergic reaction from apples..

Re:All very weel and good

[TheRaven64]

I think the parent poster was slightly confused, and was thinking about beta, not alpha emitters. A beta particle is an electron, and betavoltics involves methods of capturing these and generating current from them. This kind of power plant is useful in things like space probes, since it has a very long life. Unfortunately, the amount of current is fairly low. They might possibly be able to power something like a laptop in conjunction with a conventional battery - use the chemical battery for 6-hours a day, and have it trickle-charged by the betavoltic battery overnight. This would allow someone to take a laptop far away from civilisation and still have it working.

An other down side for betavoltic batteries is that they never actually stop generating power during their usable life span. A normal battery only `generates' electricity while it is connected to a circuit - a betavoltic cell constantly generates power which must be either used or wasted (although there's no reason you couldn't run the CPU in low-power mode running SETI@Home or something when the chemical battery is full).

The other main down side is that they gradually lose power over time. Every half-life (12.3 years for Tritium), the power output halves, meaning it will take twice as long to recharge your chemical battery. Of course, it is possible to extract the remaining tritium from the cell and re-use it, but this will require effort (and energy).