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Researchers Accidentally Make Batteries That Could Last A Lifetime (computerworld.com)

Posted by msmash on from the serendipitous-discovery dept.

Reader Socguy writes: A typical Lithium-ion battery breaks down badly between 5000-7000 cycles. Researchers at the University of California may have discovered a simple way to build a Lithium battery that can withstand 100,000+ cycles. This was a serendipitous discovery as the researcher was playing around with the battery and coated it in a thin gel layer. The researchers believe the gel plasticizes the metal oxide in the battery and gives it flexibility, preventing cracking.Dave Gershgorn, reporting for Popular Science: Instead of lithium, researchers at UC Irvine have used gold nanowires to store electricity, and have found that their system is able to far outlast traditional lithium battery construction. The Irvine team's system cycled through 200,000 recharges without significant corrosion or decline. However, they don't exactly know why. "We started to cycle the devices, and then realized that they weren't going to die," said Reginald Penner, a lead author of the paper. "We don't understand the mechanism of that yet." The Irvine battery technology uses a gold nanowire, no thicker than a bacterium, coated in manganese oxide and then protected by a layer of electrolyte gel. The gel interacts with the metal oxide coating to prevent corrosion. The longer the wire, the more surface area, and the more charge it can hold. Other researchers have been experimenting with nanowires for years, but the introduction of the protective gel separates UC Irvine's work from other research.Also from the report, "Penner suggests that a more common metal, like nickel, could replace the gold if the technology catches on."

8 of 197 comments (clear)

  1. Who cares? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It's not like this technology will ever make its way into my devices. Greedy bastards will patent it and demand huge fees to license the technology. It's also not good for the greedy bastards running businesses. The batteries won't break, which means they can't compel people to buy new stuff. Greedy fuckers will make sure this never makes its way into anything I own.

    1. Re:Who cares? by tnk1 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      The thing is... greed doesn't work that way.

      Yes, they may try and hold it as long as possible to increase value, but note that something that sits in your vault, unused, doesn't make any money. And if they patent it, the patent does run out eventually. They need to do *something* with it.

      More likely, it becomes used in very, very expensive applications where they can charge an arm and a leg for it. I'm thinking military equipment as a good target.

      Eventually, though, unless it is uneconomical to mass produce, it will make its way into other things. Those who are greedy may well try and use older tech to keep it breaking, but someone who wants to break into the market, or someone even greedier is going to use it to differentiate their product in order to eat the lunch of the people using the inferior tech.

      Note that it is possible for the better tech to be stopped, possibly through suggesting it is not safe (FUD) or some sort of paid-for government regulation, but greed by itself, won't stop this.

    2. Re:Who cares? by Seraphim1982 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      If you're using the "firehouse" bulb as your definition of "robust" then many incandescents made in the last 50 years would meet that standard.
      Lifetime is approximately proportional to light output ^ -4.
      The firehouse bulb is a 4 Watt bulb.
      So if you took a 'normal' 40W bulb, and reduced the voltage to make it run at 4W, you'd end up with 10000x the 'normal' life of a 40W bulb (i.e. millions of hours).

    3. Re:Who cares? by rraylion · · Score: 4, Interesting

      In the early years of electricity light bulb makers realized how to make light bulbs last for up to 5 years or longer. However someone else quickly realized that this would mean people would only buy light bulbs every X years as replacements. So a light bulb standard was introduced and passed through congress that effectively limited the lifespan of the light bulb to 1 year. Thus guarantee that people would purchase the product many times.This is called planned obsolescence and exists to this day because of the Phoebus cartel.

      links to proof IEEE: http://spectrum.ieee.org/geek-...
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      So about patent expiration and things that get bigger when someone does not hold the patent any longer : drugs. And lets pick My favorite drug to talk about Viagra. Viagra started as a possible high blood pressure treatment, but the side effects were amazing as we all know, its patent was scheduled to expire in 2012. So Pfizer sold it for what it did best. Then it became profitable and they increased the price to 60 a pill and a minimum or 8 pills costs someone 500 USD or so. But if Pfizer can show Viagra is a treatment for more than what it was originally marketed for, they can issue a whole new patent for the drug. This is what drug manufacturers do to keep control of a drug and its profits. This is par for the course. Lucky for you and me this drug seems to have only two good usages, luckily i have high blood pressure ;-) And Pfizer extended the patent for the second use case to 2020.

      So there is literally a market waiting to explode based on a patent expiring.

      Case 2: cell phone modems. This technical patent expired around '99 and those companies selling beepers upgraded to selling cell phones.
      Case 3: K-cups
      Case 4: 3D printing - the entire industry kick started in 2013 once the patents expired , and then in 2014 when most of the rest expired
      Case 5: Kodak and the digital photography patent : (should be #1 but everyone studies this is college as one of the greatest mistakes )
      case 6: home telephones: At&t used to lease telephones to people who paid for a home phone - thats why we all grew up with a phone that all looked the same in the 40's 50's 60's 70's and 80's. In the 80's however they were sued that it was unfair to hold the patent and make people pay for the phone... then all these new shaped phones came out... and the cords got longer which was great.. then they got tangled ... which was bad.

      These are the top ones that come to mind in 5 minutes if I actually gave it some thought I could probably come up with some good ones.

  2. Why am I so confused? by Okian+Warrior · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Why am I so confused about this story?

    Did they build a Lithium battery, or a gold battery?

    Is it holding charge or chemical energy? (If it holds charge, is it a supercapacitor?)

    The article linked in the OP isn't very clear either. They made a battery, not with an anode and a cathode, but with *two* cathodes.

    Okay, the article states "this isn't a true battery". And it's just a wire loop embedded in PMMA.

    WTF? Can I get those 10 minutes of my life back?

  3. illegal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

    So, all the battery manufacturers will lobby Congress to have this technology made illegal. And Congress will grandstand on how they are 'supporting the free market' or some such crap and pass the law making it illegal that the battery manufacturers had written for them.

  4. what type? by Lumpy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    the article is missing a lot of details.. lithium polymer? standard Lithium Ion? or the current best battery the LifePo4 that already has insane battery cycle life as well as extreme tolerance to being charged poorly so you don't need a special high cost charger.

    Read the article.....

    Ahh, this is not even a battery but a wire loop in acrylic.. Nothing to see here kids but hype.

    --
    Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
  5. Industry can't buy and bury this one ... by perpenso · · Score: 3, Interesting

    My thought as well. We won't see this in our devices any time soon unless it comes from Elon Musk via Tesla.

    Not true. The University of California (UC) owns this patent. They don't allow their patents to be buried by licensees. They also favor smaller and more local licensees. UC has a pretty good system wide policy and a dedicated staff to handle everything for faculty and student researchers. Doing a social good is part of their mindset. These are the same people that gave you BSD Unix without any real strings attached.