Nanoflowers To Change The Future Of Batteries

http://www.techtree.com/India/Future_Watch/Nanoflowers_To_Change_The_Future_Of_Batteries/551-93431-505.html
Sep 21, 2008 1255 hrs IST
One giant leap for batterykind?
E-Mail Print If there's one thing that's holding back the future of miniature technology, it's the battery. The HCL MiLeap Y, for example, is an excellent device, but usually dies a few minutes after watching a full-length movie--ditto similar UMPCs.

For long now, one of the most promising concepts for new batteries has been the ultracapacitor--like a capacitor, it stores charge, and can be recharged in just a few seconds. Right now, though, they can only store about 5% of the lithium-ion batteries that we use so much. Until now, that is. Researchers at the Research Institute of Chemical Defense, China, have come up with a way to boost the charge that ultracapacitors could hold.


They're called nanoflowers, and are nanoparticles of manganese dioxide. When used as the electrodes of the capacitors, the manganese nanoflowers deliver five times the power that traditional activated carbon electrodes do.

Unfortunately, that still puts them well behind current batteries even though you could recharge them in seconds, they'll only last you a half hour, at best. However, this is one of those "steps in the right direction" that everyone keeps talking about.

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