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I’m pretty sure that you’ve used a battery to power up devices and toys. The thing with batteries, is that it doesn’t last long (duh). You either have to replace it or get the expensive rechargeable batteries. I use rechargeable batteries on my wireless Xbox controllers and for battery-happy toys. They last long but I had to replace them within a year. Well, that might change soon.
Stanford University Researchers have come up with a high-performance aluminum battery. It charges fast, lasts longer and cheaper to produce.
The same researchers also said that their aluminum-ion batteries are safer than alkaline batteries. Alkaline type batteries don’t have the best record when it comes to being environment friendly. While Lithium-ion batteries last longer, there have been reports of these bursting into flames.
According to Hongjie Dai, a professor of chemistry at Stanford. their new battery won’t catch fire even when they drilled a hole into it.
In case you didn’t know, Aluminum is pretty abundant making it a low cost material. Also, it’s not as corrosive as alkaline or volatile like lithium. This aluminum-ion battery has a high-charge storage capacity as well.
Battery manufacturers have tried to use aluminum to create better batteries. But they’ve haven’t found one that produces enough voltage after charging and discharging cycles.
The Stanford researchers stumbled upon graphite as a cathode material. They combined it with an aluminum anode and an ionic liquid electrolyte. They put everything inside a flexible polymer-coated pouch.
The electrolyte is just salt that’s liquid at room temperature, and according to them it should be safer to use and produce.
So how good are these aluminum-ion batteries?
“In our study, we have videos showing that you can drill through the aluminum battery pouch, and it will continue working for a while longer without catching fire,” Dai said.
As for charging, the aluminum-ion battery prototype can be powered up within a minute. A regular lithium-ion battery takes several hours to get a full charge.
It gets better;this new battery can charge 7,500 times without any loss of capacity. And as you can see in the pic, the battery is flexible allowing users to fold or bend it as required.
This may store more renewable energy and replace alkaline and even lithium-ion batteries.
More efficient batteries mean less disposable batteries. And if disposed, its environmental impact should be less or nothing at all.
