Create batteries that recharge 100 times faster than normal

2011/05/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Biokimika
• Osasuna
• Medikuntza

The University of Illinois has developed a new way to manufacture the cathodes of batteries: to place the thin layers of the material that makes accumulation in a three-dimensional structure. This way you can load and download at high speed one hundred times faster than usual. This is because electrons and ions should not penetrate thick layers of material (this is what increases the charging time in conventional batteries). The three-dimensional structure also allows storing and supplying a large amount of electricity.

According to the researchers, these new cathodes "supply electricity similar to capacitors, but can provide as much as batteries." In fact, capacitors supply a lot of electricity at high speed, but their storage capacity is very limited. As for conventional batteries, the opposite happens: they can store enough energy, but they need a certain time to deliver and consume them. "Both characteristics come together in the new cathodes," the researchers said.

Illinois researchers have made a nickel structure to place the active cathode material. First, small polystyrene spheres accumulated between 400 nanometers and 2 micrometers, forming a regular structure. Nickel was then inserted into the holes and pores of the structure, after which the fusion and extraction of the polystyrene spheres was carried out. In this way a porous metal structure was achieved. This structure was eaten a little so that the holes and holes were larger and that was when it was covered with active material. The research has been published in the journal Nature nanotechnology.