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Research Promises Drastically Increased LiOn Capacity
daem0n1x writes "Could this be the breakthrough we've all been expecting that will finally make the electric car a reality? Researchers of Northwestern University USA discovered a new way to build lithium-ion batteries that changes dramatically both the charge time and capacity [original paper, paywalled]. Guess what it involves? That's right, graphene."
Flying cars are already a reality. They are just expensive and inefficient.
Having to work for a living is the root of all evil.
Interstellar travel is already a reality. It is just expensive and inefficient.
"None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license." --John Milton
... they'll fit right into the steady curve of slowly but steadily increasing battery capacity. People assume that all these battery advancements we keep hearing about never pan out. Well, some of them do, but once the researchers silly claims are brought down to be a bit more realistic, and after the years go by before they actually hit the market, they're just incremental improvements on what was available before they came out.
There's nothing wrong with that.
Battery swapping is going to look like a hilariously silly idea 5-10 years from now when an electric car can drive plenty far enough on a single charge. Heck even now you can buy quick-charging electric cars off the showroom floor that can reach an 80% charge in 30 minutes.
And to the guy about to post "Electric cars are a joke! I drive 900 miles every day you know!" well stick to your Ford Ranger with jerry cans in the back, but don't pretend that most people have any use for such range.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Graphite is the form of carbon used in pencils. Anyway, my pencil is a lot more than a single atom thick ;-)
A similar argument could be made against internal-combustion automobiles: you are dependent on oil companies and you need to live/work at driving distance to a filling station. I know these are facile comparisons, but I hardly think that these limitations make Better Place an impossible or useless proposition. There are lots of people that live/work in an urban area that could have a sprinkling of such stations. You can recharge the battery at home or work like a typical EV. Being able to swap it out is a way to reduce capital cost/risk in owning a battery outright, and allows you to get a full charge in a few minutes when you need.
What is easier to store? Gasoline for 1000 cars or battery packs for 1000 cars? Your typical gas station has a couple thousand gallons of gas below it. A battery pack for elevtric cars occupies 16 cubic feet(figure 4'x4' area). To store enough batteries for 1000 cars will require 16'000 feet of storage or roughly the area occupied by a 5 bay mechanics garage.
It will also by using more power than a hospital. And you need one on every street corner. Even with home charging we will need to double the electtical capacity and output of the USA in order to move a significant populations to electric cars.
Take a look at the whole problem. It is really scary when you put hard numbers into play.
i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
it doesn't surprise me at all that scientists are finding all sorts of neat uses for graphene. (curious, that's NOT in my dictionary here...) The main novelty here is they're dealing with a building material on an atomic scale. Since things behave very differently at those scales, it's only natural to find new uses for it. And this is only one element they're working with. Imagine what all awaits discovery at the nano scale?
It's like all these years you've been somehow managing to fix fine swiss watches using a baseball bat and tire iron for tools, getting at best mediocre results and only modest improvements from time to time. Now someone hands you a tweezers. Hey, this works better! really? They need to explore other nano materials instead of concentrating all their time on this one new one.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
This reduced the time it takes the battery to recharge by up to 10 times.
I just cringe when I read that kind of stuff coming from an article about scientific fields.
Does that mean 1/10 the time?
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.