

Stanford develops new batteries  - dbz
http://news.stanford.edu/news/2011/november/longlife-power-storage-112311.html

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jws
This is a cathode made from nanoscale particles of crystalline copper
hexacyanoferrate which has a lattice that nicely fits hydrated potassium ions.
Very high charge and discharge rates. 40000 cycles and still 80% capacity.
Projected to be cheap to mass produce.

The battery chemistry is cheaper than lithium ion, but also heavier for the
same energy storage. Sounds like more than a few times heavier, but hard to
tell from the article. In any event, aimed at grid storage, energy density
isn't as important as for portable electronics.

The fly in the ointment is that they do not have a suitable anode terminal,
but as researchers that just gives them something to work on.

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narkee
New battery press releases are like the "win a free iPad" ads of the tech
world.

It seems like every single research institution in the past 10 years has
announced some battery breakthrough, via metamaterials, carbon nano-tubes,
super-capacitors, etc.

I've yet to see much follow through. It's getting tiresome to read about.

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D_Drake
Thank you. Every six months some school or company has some miraculous super-
battery that somehow never goes anywhere. I'm not reading any more of these
stories until they include the words "Consumer Electronics Show."

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joelrunyon
Does anyone know why it's taken so long for progress to happen in battery
technology? Obviously, I get that it's not that simple, but is there a
specific limitation we keep running into a wall here?

I know they mention price at one point in the article, but for something
that's bound to have a massive impact on a huge variety of industries, I can't
imagine that the money hurdle is insurmountable.

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polshaw
There are a _lot_ of variables that need to be balanced.. high energy density
(both mass _and_ volume), decent lifetime (charge cycles, unused degredation),
charge/discharge time, suitable voltage range, availablility of materials,
non-toxicity, complexity (cost) of manufacture, unused discharge rate, etc,
etc.

This also explains why we get so many breakthroughs- a breakthrough in one
area alone is usually of no practical use. Where they are they tend to be of
niche interest.

Batteries are largely only a major problem in the electronics industry; and
the car industry as that goes electric. There are a lot of other ways to store
energy which are used in heavy industry where portability isn't required-
flywheels, supercapacitors, even HEP stations are used as energy stores by the
power grid.

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joelrunyon
Thanks for the response. It's funny how we do seem to see these breakthroughs
all the time, but rarely actually see marked improvements.

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RShackleford
fuck

