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MIT "Yolk and Shell" Nanoparticle Promises Longer-Lived Rechargeable Batteries
jan_jes writes: A new "yolk-and-shell" nanoparticle created by researchers at MIT and Tsinghua University in China could boost the capacity and power of lithium-ion batteries. The researchers have created an electrode made of nanoparticles with a solid shell, and a "yolk" inside that can change size again and again without affecting the shell. The new findings, which use aluminum as the key material for the lithium-ion battery's negative electrode, or anode, are reported in the journal Nature Communications. The use of nanoparticles with an aluminum yolk and a titanium dioxide shell has proven to be "the high-rate champion among high-capacity anodes." The linked article goes into much more detail about the (serendipitous) discovery.
... there's many alternative, highly improved anode types. There's much more room for improvement on cathodes. There's diminishing returns focusing so much on the anodes. Don't get me wrong, this really does sound like a very good anode material - in particular, both the raw materials and the manufacturing process should be cheap and with good throughput. But we need cathode improvements more.
I'll never forget the last thing grandma said to me before she died: "What are you doing in here with that knife?!?"
No, that's just the issue - all hell doesn't break loose. Peoples' electronic devices just keep consuming more power and/or manufacturers keep shrinking the size of the battery pack. We keep reading about new battery capacity techs, and while most of them don't make it to market, some of them actually do. For example, on Slashdot 5-ish years ago we were at several points reading about silicon anodes for li-ion batteries. Guess what? Some manufacturers today now use them. But we just don't notice these things because there's no "hell breaks loose" moment.
I'll never forget the last thing grandma said to me before she died: "What are you doing in here with that knife?!?"