Lithium Battery Bit....

[jryan]

Came across a bit of an article e-mailed to me, thought it might be of interest:

From the "NewsBytes" section of the current "SmartPhone & PocketPC Magazine":

New nonowire battery holds 10 times the charge of current ones
SmartPhone & Pockt PC Magazine, April/May 2008, Page 9

Researchers at Stanford have developed a new method of using silicon nonowires in lithium-ion batteries that produces 10 times the charge of existing Li-ion batteries. The silicon in typical batteries tends to pulverize during the expand/shrink process of charging and discharging. Nanowires avoid this fracturing problem due to their extremely thin shape (one-thousandth the thickness of a sheet of paper), thus greatly enhancing the battery's performance. The new batteries could be used in anything from laptops and cell phones to electric cars.


Jeremy Ryan

[LibertySegway]

Now this is the kind of news I like to hear. Can you imagine 10x the glide time? I think Polo Pro's arm would fall off after a practice that long!

Thanks for sharing Jermey. You just made my "unofficial international Segway day" all that much brighter!

[bgrh@mac.com]

Longer-Lasting Batteries for Laptops

Technology Review
Monday, April 07, 2008
Longer-Lasting Batteries for Laptops
New materials improve the reliability, safety, and storage capacity of lithium-ion batteries.
By Kevin Bullis

Conventional lithium-ion batteries in laptops and cell phones quickly lose their ability to store energy and can catch fire if they're overcharged or damaged. Now researchers at Argonne National Laboratory in Argonne, IL, have developed composite battery materials that can make such batteries both safer and longer lived, while increasing their capacity to store energy by 30 percent.

Last month, the researchers took a significant step toward commercializing the technology by licensing it to a major materials supply company, Toda Kogyo, based in Japan. The company has the capacity to make the materials for about 30 million laptop batteries a year, says Gary Henriksen, who manages electrochemical storage research at Argonne.

The new materials are one example of a new generation of lithium-ion electrode chemistries that address the shortcomings of conventional lithium-ion batteries. Each has its own trade-offs. For example, another material called lithium iron phosphate has better safety and durability than Argonne's materials, but it stores somewhat less energy than conventional lithium-ion batteries. Argonne's materials improve on the safety and reliability of today's laptop batteries, while also storing more energy.

[MTOBATTERY]

They are still having manufacturability problems with these but someone is sure to figure it out. Cost will be through the roof when they do come out. Forecasts have been 3-4 times the cost of current lithiums. Maybe cool but at a price.

[Five-Flags]

Originally Posted by MTOBATTERY

...
Forecasts have been 3-4 times the cost of current lithiums. Maybe cool but at a price.

Wow! Here's four grand -- would you like a Segway or a battery?