Startup Unveils Revolutionary New Rechargeable Alkaline Batteries (nytimes.com)

Slashdot reader cdreimer quotes the New York Times: Alkaline batteries can be made far more cheaply and safely than today's lithium-ion batteries, but they are not rechargeable... Ionic Materials could change that equation with an alkaline battery the company said could be recharged hundreds of times. One additional benefit of the company's breakthrough: An alkaline battery would not be as prone to the combustion issues that have plagued lithium-ion batteries in a range of products, most notably some Samsung smartphones. Cheaper and more powerful batteries are also considered by many to be the driver needed to make the cost of renewable energy technologies like wind and solar competitive with the coal, gas and nuclear power that support the national energy grid.
The company "has demonstrated up to 400 recharge cycles for its prototypes," and it's now even investigating aluminum-based alkaline batteries which would also be lighter than lithium-ion batteries. The company is backed by Sun Microsystems co-founder Bill Joy, who also envisions the batteries being used in electric cars.

Comments

Not new

[markdavis]

How is this news??? Rechargeable alkaline batteries have been available for over 45 years.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Perhaps they have improved how many times it can be recharged, but the summary makes it sound like the feat is the concept.

Re:Not new

[BarbaraHudson]

They were a big thing for a while, and then devices became energy misers. An LED flashlight lasts a lot longer on a conventional carbon-zinc cell than it used to, hence the need to replace batteries far less often. Same thing with smoke detectors - the original ones required a 12v dc wired power supply, but now the batteries can last for years before it starts to beep that it's time to change the battery. Other devices, such as walkie-talkies, which used to eat 8 batteries at a shot, have become obsolete. Same with ghetto blasters, where half the weight was batteries, replaced by a headphone on your smartphone. TV remotes can last 5 years on the original batteries now, so who cares if they're rechargeable if the remote is more likely to get lost/broken/chewed by the dog before the batteries die?