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Stanford Team Creates Stable Lithium Anode Using Honeycomb Film

puddingebola (2036796) writes "A team at Stanford has created a stable Lithium anode battery using a carbon honeycomb film. The film is described as a nanosphere layer that allows for the expansion of Lithium during use, and is suitable as a barrier between anode and cathode. Use of a lithium anode improves the coulombic efficiency and could result in longer range batteries for cars." The linked article suggests that the 200-mile-range, $25,000 electric car is a more realistic concept with batteries made with this technology, though some people are more interested in super-capacity phone batteries.

8 of 119 comments (clear)

  1. Re:More Range Needed by i+kan+reed · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Let's be reasonable here. Everyone takes long trips sometimes. Now there's definitely an 80/20 problem, where that long trip 20% of miles becomes an inordinate source of range anxiety, and taking a half hour break every 3-4 hours isn't too much to ask I think.

    Unfortunately, we have to convince people that it's a net positive for them, not that it's "not too much to ask". And it's not, unless you count the benefits from every other driver also going electric.

  2. Re:*Yawn* by jeffb+(2.718) · · Score: 3, Funny

    Yep, real men would never be happy with today's battery technology. That's why I still use a two-cycle engine in my phone.

  3. Re:More Range Needed by Matheus · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'd love to have an 800+ mile range but no car I've ever owned has ever even teased that (best tank ever 436miles). That being said there has been a certain standard set by the automotive industry that I *do expect electric cars to conform to or I have no problem complaining: 1 "fill" ~ 300 Miles. Your average gas tank is sized for that measure and that's a fairly reasonable amount of distance before demanding a break. I'll be a little more demanding and say I want my charge time to be roughly equivalent to my gas fill up time which is closer to 15-20 minutes. SO give me a ~300 mile range car that can charge in 20 minutes and I'll consider an electric car a viable option for the kind of long distance driving I do.

    I always found it fairly disturbing that Doc Brown wasn't able to wire Mr. Fusion into an electric motor back in 1900 (or even when he installed it in 2015!). He had the know how and the means but that would've just effed up the plot now wouldn't it have!

  4. Re:More Range Needed by geekoid · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Did you know there was a time in the use when gas powered cars could only go a couple of hundred miles on a tank and people managed to go on vacation just fine? That's why roads like the 66 and 80 are littered with ghost towns and closed gas stations.

    In 1973, a Plymouth station age, a station wagon got 7-16 mpg and had a 16 gallon tank. The 256 miles, BEST case.

    So I think people need to get over themselves a bit and relax about having to stop for a git during long road trips when the other 80%* is a hell of a lot cleaner. Yes, electric cars are even cleaner over all in state that use old coal plants.

    OF course, you could rent or buy another vehicle for the road trip.
    Or take a train.**

    *I'd say 95%

    **BWAHAHAHAHHAHAHahahaha.

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  5. Re:More Range Needed by sribe · · Score: 3, Insightful

    In 1973, a Plymouth station age, a station wagon got 7-16 mpg and had a 16 gallon tank. The 256 miles, BEST case.

    Yeah, and you could refill it in 2 minutes.

  6. Re:Every month a new battery breakthrough, but.. by geekoid · · Score: 3, Insightful

    A) This story isn't about batteries.
    B) This is a big breakthrough
    C) Batteries have improved, and some og those things do make t to market. You just don't hear of them becasue they market it's impact, not the technology or science.
    "20% longer! " Not "20% longer do to the tech Dr. So N So invented 5 years ago."

    Nice to know aircraft carriers, 777s, and mount Rushmore dodn't exist in your wold.

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  7. Re:Every month a new battery breakthrough, but.. by Rei · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Except that you have bought them; you just haven't realized it. Energy density of li-ion batteries has grown by about 50% in the past five years. Have you seriously not noticed how cell phone and laptop battery mah ratings keep growing while they keep making the volume available for the batteries smaller?

    It's big news when a new tech happens in the lab. It's not big news when the cells first roll off a production line.

    Most new lab techs don't make it to commercialization. But a lucky fraction of them do, and that's the reason that you're not walking around today with a cell phone with a battery the size of a small brick.

    --
    It's a Cyrillic alphabet. It's like all those keys you never push on a calculator.
  8. Re:Every month a new battery breakthrough, but.. by Radical+Moderate · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This. Compare today's cordless tools to those of the late 90s. Night and day. The battery revolution has been going on for years, but because it didn't happen overnight nobody's noticing.

    I expect Slashdot to trumpet every potential battery break-through because it's new for nerds. I don't expect to find those new batteries on the shelf tomorrow because I'm not an idiot. It's a long road from the lab to the market, most brilliant ideas don't make it.

    --
    Never let a lack of data get in the way of a good rant.