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Boosting Battery Storage With Seaweed

Posted by Soulskill on from the giving-batteries-a-kelping-hand dept.

New submitter cartman writes "A substance found in brown algae, 'including the type which forms forests of giant kelp,' could be used to increase the storage capacity of batteries, according to scientists at Georgia Tech (abstract). The substance, called alginate, allows silicon particles in the anode to swell without damaging the anode, thereby increasing storage capacity of batteries by up to a factor of 10. 'The full potential of a silicon anode can't be exploited until researchers develop a matching cathode capable of handling the same amount of lithium ions. But even with existing cathodes, alginate-silicon anodes could increase the capacity of lithium-ion batteries by 30 to 40 percent, according to Yushin.'"

5 of 59 comments (clear)

  1. I still don't believe it. by SexyKellyOsbourne · · Score: 3, Insightful

    After all, for the past 10 years, slashdot has been predicting that we'll be using bacteria, vodka, and other primitive elements to power our laptops non-stop for days.

    http://slashdot.org/story/01/11/15/1914208/Methanol-Fuel-Cell-Battery-For-Your-Laptop
    http://tech.slashdot.org/story/02/10/17/1630245/Fuel-Cell-Laptop-announced-by-Toshiba
    http://tech.slashdot.org/story/03/03/25/0056230/Enzyme-Bio-Battery-Runs-on-Ethanol
    http://slashdot.org/story/03/06/07/2110231/DoCoMo-Will-Launch-Fuel-Cell-Mobile-Phones-By-2005
    http://science.slashdot.org/story/03/09/08/113239/Bacteria-Powered-Batteries
    http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/06/03/11/1745258/Laptop-Fuel-Cells-Coming-Soon
    http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/10/06/20/0110232/Potato-Powered-Batteries-Debut

    As with the "Year of the Linux Desktop", I'll believe it when I see it.

    1. Re:I still don't believe it. by tp1024 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      But where is the Virus battery? I mean, WE HAVE BEEN PROMISED they'd be around.

    2. Re:I still don't believe it. by im_thatoneguy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Ummm, this is completely different in every single way. Those are all fuel cells. This is just a better lithium-ion battery.

  2. Up to 10x more ... must be a fraud by tp1024 · · Score: 3, Insightful
    C'mon. How often did we read this stuff? How often will we keep reading it again?

    For over 100 years now, miracle batteries for electric cars have been supposed to be just around the corner.

    I'll quote from the link I gave:

    "A large number of people interested in stored power are looking forward to a revolution in the generating power of storage batteries, and it is the opinion of many that the long-looked-for, light weight, high capacity battery will soon be discovered." (source, 1901).

    "The demand for a proper automobile storage battery is so crying that it soon must result in the appearance of the desired accumulator [battery]. Everywhere in the history of industrial progress, invention has followed close in the wake of necessity" (Electrical Review, 1901).

    Can't just finally file them right next to the perpetuum mobile cranks and move on until somebody actually delivers on those stupid promises?

  3. Re:if we see this... by russotto · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Li-Ion cells explode when you charge them too much, and die when drained completely. Li-Ion charging circuitry basically charges a bank of cells to about 80%, thn trickle charges to about 90%, then tops off. The charger knows the array is "full" when it sees it's not holding any more juice. This happens when some of the cells burst. So every charge is actually decreasing your Li-Ion's capacity.

    No cells burst during normal charging of Li-Ion batteries.

    NiMH has lower energy density, lower power density, lower charge efficiency, and higher storage losses. It's just inferior.