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Nanobatteries — Safer By Design
Iddo Genuth writes "Conventional Li-Ion batteries have been known to catch fire and explode. A new, safer type of Li-Ion nanobattery that might help prevent such mishaps has been developed by researchers at Tel Aviv University. These nanobatteries should prove useful for various micro devices used for medical, military, and a range of other applications. They are 2-4 years from commercial availability."
We'll have 2-4 more years of exploding laptops?
From the PHP manual: "Also note that it is your responsibility to die() if necessary."
Is there really that much of an explosion/fire risk for very small and microbatteries? Sure, these nanobatteries would be fantastic for small robots, but I'd guess we're well over 4 years away from being able to make large batteries (e.g. laptop batteries) utilizing nanofabrication techniques that could also reduce fire/explosion risks.
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Of course, you will have to compete with Uncle Sam, specifically, NSA and CIA.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Another story about a breakthrough battery technology 2-4 years away. Wake me up when one of these breakthroughs becomes a reality the readers of Slashdot can afford and use.
Spelling and grammar mistakes specifically left in to give the grammar and spelling nazis a meaning to their life.
If your theory is different from practice, then your theory is wrong.
And it's on the market now. 10,000-15,000 cycles with little or no degradation, double the energy density of current li-ions. Ideal for automotive stuff, they're already shipping to customers.
http://www.altairnano.com/
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So they won't explode or catch fire. How long will it be before some dreaded danger arises that we haven't imagined? It is nanotechnology, after all.
mood/pessimistic (yeah, I read the myspace post.)
That's all terrific and such, but I'm still more interested in nano- hard drive technology. Like that Wired thing about them using extremophile viruses from Yellowstone geisers by harvesting their superprotein shells and using that for data storage - 50 gigs? meh, 500 terrabytes. I have to give the creators of these batteries credit for the attempt though. My laptop still has yet to explode, thankfully.
Nano batteries for micro devices? I'm pico excited about this!
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
"...that might help prevent such mishaps..."
I might possibly be pushed more towards apparent annoyance by this non-commital language. Let's start with the unqualified version, then add the qualifiers one by one:
...that prevents such mishaps... (good, a solution!)
...that helps prevent such mishaps... (so they will still happen, they'll just be reduced)
...that might help prevent such mishaps... (so it might not even do anything?)
Conventional SONY Li-ion batteries that is...
I would have thought that a correct use of the prefix 'nano' would involve an object, device or effect, the WHOLE of which is on a nanometre scale. So for example, a 'nanobattery' would be a battery the WHOLE of which is on a nanometre scale.
I'm obviously not alone is being heartily sick of anything involving components parts which are on an atomic scale (e.g.... uh, CHEMICALS) being referred to as 'nano'-whatever. For instance a while back we had this idiotic story about 'lead compounds' producing 'nanocrystals' and being used by the ancient Egyptians.
Next on slashdot: scientists develop nanobreathing technology using a nanogas mixture containing nanoparticles only an few atoms wide! Revolutionary nanopower technique delivers charged nanoparticles to electrical devices through ordinary wire! Nanolightbulbs emitting nanophotons found to have been in use since the 18th century! Nanocar constructed entirely from nanoparticles of metal, plastic and glass runs entirely on nano-fuel only a few carbon atoms long!
Read Pynchon.
And it's on the market now. 10,000-15,000 cycles with little or no degradation, double the energy density of current li-ions. Ideal for automotive stuff, they're already shipping to customers.
Do the same charging circuits work? I'm already in the 'red zone' on my MacBook Pro and I've only be using it for an hour and a half... must have more power!
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
...as there's a Boston firm that made the packs that are in one of the brands of power tools (Milkwalkee I think?); they can take a recharge rate much, much higher than most battery packs, and the chargers are using a fraction of the maximum rate. The packs don't have to cool down after being drained before getting charged, etc. Google says the technology is lithium-manganese based.
There's also a Japanese firm that is making safer lithium ion packs (so they're cheaper from a materials standpoint.) They have a video showing a large pack of cell getting dropped (by a forklift- yes, a big pack) onto a steel spike and nothing happening (a traditional lithium ion or lithium poly pack would burst into flame.)
Please help metamoderate.
read the post in front of you
Come on, you all know that in tech, 2-4 years has a 50% chance of equalling never.
Ninjas and pirates. How piquant.
Considering that all of us who us laptops seem to be playing with, er, ahh, fire just a layer of clothing or two away from our genitals, is modding the parent post "flamebait" a positive or negative action?
But, again, they've put the batteries in a series/parallel network. They don't mention that a short could take place in places in the network other than exactly across one cell. Let's say an impurity spec lands across a couple wires. Depending on which couple wires, you might have shorted just a few microcells, or you could be shorting out the whole battery.
The reason Li-Ion batteries are dangerous is the sheer energy density. Rearranging that energy with a different battery structure isn't going to negate the fact that, simplistically, you somewhere have two conductors across which is the entire potential of the battery. (Unless you divide the battery into segments and give each segment a unique load. However, that would require a fundamental re-thinking of how electronic devices are powered.)
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Since the article--or at least the summary--seems mostly concerned with safety: what safety measures do these new batteries with _double_ the energy density of standard Li-ion batteries feature? If the energy density increases, doesn't that make the batteries more dangerous to use without additional considerations to prevent damage/overcharge/whatever?
A Tel Aviv press release about an astounding new product that's only 2-4 years out? Amazing.
Yeah! Same goes for words that start with 'micro'. Words like microscope are so lame.
No carbon electrode. It's titanium dioxide, already inert, nothing to burn.
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Since power is proportional to volume (length^3), scaling laws for a nano-scale battery are VERY unfavorable. I'm not sure how they will get over this hurdle.
Just like nano-sized heat engines, nano sized batteries have a big problem in this department. There may be advantages in internal resistance or peak current, but the power density of such a battery, not to mention the cost, seem unfavorable.
+++ ATH0 +++
Not the laptops themselves.
Ohnevermind.
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they talk about charging in 3 mins
Ah, that sounds familiar. I think I worked out something on these or similar units in cars (though Toshiba comes to mind) and figured you'd need a 240A outlet to plug your car into to get a 3 minute charge. That's impressive.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
I <3 Vim
A guilty conscience means at least you've got one.
If you look at the battery specs in the link, they are equivalent to NiMH in specific energy. This is thoroughly unexciting, especially for EVs/plugins.
First laptops, then cellphones (http://www.turbogadgets.com/2007/01/16/burning-ce llphone-sets-owner-on-fire/), now nanokit.
Play Russian Roulette with your batteries for excitement.like.no.other
I think I got Voltaic Piles while reading this article
Nothing witty
But the size of the thing is proportion to volume as well, so while the power goes down, the size goes down as well. So why is the power density of a million nanobatteries going to be lower than that of one battery a million times the volume?
robotic flying killer spy wasp!
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If your actual battery volume is low, then you have a lot of surface area of the container and vs. a conventional battery all of the volume of container, interconnect, and everything else will take up (proportionally) a lot more of the space. Think about it.
+++ ATH0 +++
This is one of numerous "investment opportunities" carried by Slashdot recently. Be very careful. Several of these seem like they are only ways of collecting investor money, and will never make a profit. I didn't investigate this one.
In any case, Slashdot has become a venue for Israeli companies wanting investments.
Something isn't nice or nasty because we made it or it occurs in nature. It's nice or nasty because of its intrinsic physical properties. What may be "unnatural" is our producing concentrations of these materials far in excess of what would be likely to occur without human intervention on this planet's surface - which again isn't fundamentally that much different from an early medieval European exposing themselves to nanoparticles by spending their winters in a smoky hut.