A long-lasting battery is something that any mobile device user dreams about. That’s why every piece of news about new battery technologies sounds very optimistic.
For example, a group of scientists from the University of Rice unveiled their invention – a renovated lithium battery with boosted capacity which is three times bigger than in regular batteries. All existing lithium-ion batteries come with one small flaw – a so-called dendrite problem when an excess of energy causes deposits known as dendrites to appear. These things can actually be reason of an explosion.
But chemist James Tour and his colleagues solved this problem by creating a special anode consisting of carbon and graphene nanotubes. The structure that combines carbon and lithium eliminates any dendrites. These hybrid nanotubes should replace graphite anodes in currently used lithium-ion batteries.
The new battery is capable of storing 3 351mAh of energy per each gram of lithium, which is much more than the capacity of existing lithium-ion batteries. Experts believe that the new technology will improve drastically battery time in smartphones, wearables, electric cars and other devices.
VIA Rice University
