Micro-battery breakthrough

I always get excited when I hear of improvements in battery technology.  We have so many great gadgets but  if they are to be portable then they need to be powered by a battery.

Batteries never give us the staying power we need and they have long been the Achilles Heel of portability.  Think about all of those smartphones, tablets and notebooks that don't last the distance.  You often need to find an AC socket to recharge your device at the most inopportune moment.

There are many projects trying to design the next generation of battery technology.  Here's one that shows
great promise.  The key appears to be in what they've done with the electrodes.  Traditionally the anode (positive) and cathode (negative) have poles that are solid.  Electrons flow through a barrier (the electrolyte) when a load (such as a bulb) is attached and hey presto, electricity.

3 dimensional electrodes are the key to the power gain

The radical change with this new technology is that the normally solid electrodes are swapped out for three dimensional micro-structures.  Increasing the effective surface area of the electrodes has a remarkable effect on the power density.  The batteries have around 2000 times more power generated than regular micro-batteries.  They also recharge around 1000 times faster, too.

At the moment they have some issues with the manufacturing process and some of the materials are too combustible to be safe but they have high hopes for sorting out these problems.  The improvements in the electrode structure and their effect on power gain will remain regardless of what materials they make these batteries out of.

The technology will allow for very powerful batteries that are much smaller than current ones or, alternatively, batteries of a similar size to today's units but many times more powerful.

I'll be watching this one with great anticipation.

Battery stories

Battery breakthrough (BBC)

Teeny tiny batteries (Cnet)

Boffins build high-power low-size battery (TheRegister)

If the title 'High-power lithium ion microbatteries from interdigitated three-dimensional bicontinuous nanoporous electrodes' doesn't phase you, then maybe you'd like to read the more detailed technical report about this technology.  (Warning: subscription service)

How does a battery work?