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Researchers Predict Next-Gen Batteries Will Last 10 Times Longer (newatlas.com)

Lithium-metal electrodes could increase the storage capacity of batteries 10-fold, predict researchers at the University of Michigan, allowing electric cars to drive from New York to Denver without recharging. Using a $100 piece of technology, the team is now peeking inside charging batteries to study the formation of "dendrites," which consume liquid electrolytes and reduce capacity. Slashdot reader Eloking quotes New Atlas: Battery cells are normally tested through cycles of charge and discharge, testing the capacity and flow potential of the cells before being dissected. Dasgupta and his team...added a window to a lithium cell so that they could film the dendrites forming and deforming during charge and discharge cycles.
In a video interview they're reporting that dendrites can actually help a battery if they form a small, even "carpet" inside of the battery which "can keep more lithium in play." According to the article, "The future of lithium-ion batteries is limited, says University of Michigan researcher Neil Dasgupta, because the chemistry cannot be pushed much further than it already has. Next-generation lithium cells will likely use lithium air and lithium sulfur chemistries."

7 of 171 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Oh Boy by TheRealMindChild · · Score: 4, Informative

    Things simply use less power these days. Long gone are the times you needed 2x D batteries to power a flashlight.

    --

    "When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
  2. Re:That's not what 10-fold means by newcastlejon · · Score: 3, Informative

    p>10-fold = (2^10)*original capacity. 1024*100 percent increase is a 102,400% improvement.

    That's not what tenfold means. Saying something increases tenfold is the same as saying ten times (10x or 1000%).

    --
    If God forks the Universe every time you roll a die, he'd better have a damned good memory.
  3. Re:Compact Florescents would like a word by ledow · · Score: 4, Informative

    Fuck knows what shit it is that you're buying, but there's a CF replacement bulb in every socket in my house and I've literally never changed one.

    The outdoors one is on from dusk to 11pm all year round and is a CF. Still going.

    In fact, all that's happened is that I've started replacing the CFs with LED lights - and same thing there. Not one in the bin yet. In fact I've still got a box of 20 LED bulbs which are just waiting for the CFs to die but I don't get up on a chair to change them unless they do and NOT ONE has. In the same time, I've replaced 12 halogens and about 7 incandescents.

    And I'm using the cheapest thing on Amazon that I can buy in bulk and is supplied in a direct-replacement for an existing bulb-shape.

    Hell, I even replaced all the tiny little high-power halogens that were popular in light fittings with bigger-but-same-output LEDs that take 1/50th the power.

    I honestly don't know what junk you're using or what's wrong with your house electrics, but CF's do what they claim, and so do LEDs.

  4. Re:I say BS by Rei · · Score: 1, Informative

    No, I meant precisely what I wrote. Every word. Go look at old cell phone batteries and how many amp hours they provide if you don't believe me.

    --
    "99 dead duelists of Dios on the wall. 99 dead duelists of Dios! Take one's ring, pass it around..."
  5. Re:Oh Boy by chihowa · · Score: 4, Informative

    50 years ago, battery powered tools didn't exist at all because no battery could hold enough charge and still be portable.

    The first cordless electric drill was produced by Black and Decker in 1961, using NiCd batteries. That's 55 years ago.

    --
    If you want a vision of the future, imagine a youtube comments section scrolling - forever.
  6. Re:I say BS by Rei · · Score: 5, Informative

    *Sigh*

    And I'm telling you that lithium-ion batteries are not a "single tech", that they've dramatically improved in power and energy density (both volumetric and gravimetric) over time. And if you doubt this, I repeat: go find and older lithium-ion battery and compare it to a new one.

    As for li-air, yes, the maximum energy density of li-air is about 10x of the maximum of li-ion. Namely because it works by direct oxidation rather than intercalation, so you don't need the mass of the matrix into which the ions get intercalated. It is not a "magical tech". It exists. Like all technologies in all fields, however, you have to reach production specs. This means not only maintaining a combination of safety, reliability, longevity, efficiency, temperature range, power density (charge and discharge) and energy density, but also affordability in mass production. And to be able to guarantee that you can do all of these things to a high enough level for investors to take the risk.

    As with all technologies, you start out with promise in one or two fields, but serious problems in many others that you have to deal with. With time you refine them, until all of refined to a state where the product is commercialized. Li-air has actually been advancing quite well. In the early days one of its biggest problems were efficiency and longevity, but they've made huge strides in both in recent years. Lithium sulfur still looks nearer term, but commercialization of Li-air appears to have gone from "possible" to "quite probable".

    --
    "99 dead duelists of Dios on the wall. 99 dead duelists of Dios! Take one's ring, pass it around..."
  7. Re:Oh Boy by sexconker · · Score: 1, Informative

    He's bullshitting through and through. He's likely a millennial whose imaging a past that didn't exist so he can pretend battery tech has meaningfully progressed.
    It hasn't.