Though they be but little, they are fierce. The most powerful batteries on the planet are only a few millimeters in size, yet they pack such a punch that a driver could use a cellphone powered by these batteries to jump-start a dead car battery – and then recharge the phone in the blink of an eye.
Developed by researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the new microbatteries out-power even the best supercapacitors and could drive new applications in radio communications and compact electronics.
Led by William P. King, the Bliss Professor of mechanical science and engineering, the researchers published their results in the April 16 issue of Nature Communications.
“This is a whole new way to think about batteries,” King said. “A battery can deliver far more power than anybody ever thought. In recent decades, electronics have gotten small. The thinking parts of computers have gotten small. And the battery has lagged far behind. This is a microtechnology that could change all of that. Now the power source is as high-performance as the rest of it.”
With currently available power sources, users have had to choose between power and energy. For applications that need a lot of power, like broadcasting a radio signal over a long distance, capacitors can release energy very quickly but can only store a small amount. For applications that need a lot of energy, like playing a radio for a long time, fuel cells and batteries can hold a lot of energy but release it or recharge slowly.
“There’s a sacrifice,” said James Pikul, a graduate student and first author of the paper. “If you want high energy you can’t get high power; if you want high power it’s very difficult to get high energy. But for very interesting applications, especially modern applications, you really need both. That’s what our batteries are starting to do. We’re really pushing into an area in the energy storage design space that is not currently available with technologies today.”
The new microbatteries offer both power and energy, and by tweaking the structure a bit, the researchers can tune them over a wide range on the power-versus-energy scale.
The batteries owe their high performance to their internal three-dimensional microstructure. Batteries have two key components: the anode (minus side) and cathode (plus side). Building on a novel fast-charging cathode design by materials science and engineering professor Paul Braun’s group, King and Pikul developed a matching anode and then developed a new way to integrate the two components at the microscale to make a complete battery with superior performance.
With so much power, the batteries could enable sensors or radio signals that broadcast 30 times farther, or devices 30 times smaller. The batteries are rechargeable and can charge 1,000 times faster than competing technologies – imagine juicing up a credit-card-thin phone in less than a second. In addition to consumer electronics, medical devices, lasers, sensors and other applications could see leaps forward in technology with such power sources available.
“Any kind of electronic device is limited by the size of the battery – until now,” King said. “Consider personal medical devices and implants, where the battery is an enormous brick, and it’s connected to itty-bitty electronics and tiny wires. Now the battery is also tiny.”
The Latest Bing News on:
Microbatteries
- Ensurge Micropower ASA: Ensurge Delivers First Shipment of Solid-State Lithium Microbatteries to Leading Consumer Electronics Companyon April 22, 2024 at 12:06 am
The Ensurge 10-micron microbatteries have the energy density and performance to power space-constrained connected devices including wearables, hearables and IoT sensors.
- Ensurge Delivers First Shipment of Solid-State Lithium Microbatteries to Leading Consumer Electronics Companyon April 21, 2024 at 6:00 pm
Oslo, April 22, 2023 -- Ensurge Micropower (OSE: ENSU, and OTCQB: ENMPY) (“Ensurge” or the “Company”), today announced it has completed its first shipment of the world’s first fully ...
- Ensurge Delivers First Shipment of Solid-State Lithium Microbatteries to Leading Consumer Electronics Companyon April 21, 2024 at 5:00 pm
Oslo, April 22, 2023 -- Ensurge Micropower (OSE: ENSU, and OTCQB: ENMPY) (“Ensurge” or the “Company”), today announced it has completed its first shipment of the world’s first fully functional ...
- Microbatteries On The Gridon March 27, 2020 at 9:28 am
Not everybody has $6500 to toss into a Tesla Powerwall (and that’s a low estimate), but if you want the benefits of battery storage for your house, [Matt]’s modular “microbattery” storage ...
The Latest Google Headlines on:
Microbatteries
[google_news title=”” keyword=”microbatteries” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”] [/vc_column_text]The Latest Bing News on:
Rechargeable microbatteries
- The Best Rechargeable Hand Warmers, Tested and Reviewedon May 7, 2024 at 12:00 pm
When temperatures drop, it’s hard to enjoy being outdoors with frozen fingers. The best rechargeable hand warmers can feel like holding a hot cup of coffee, helping to keep fingers and palms ...
- The best rechargeable batterieson May 7, 2024 at 7:57 am
Accelerate your tech game Paid Content How the New Space Race Will Drive Innovation How the metaverse will change the future of work and society Managing the Multicloud The Future of the Internet ...
- Best AA and AAA rechargeable batteries: Which? Best Buys and expert buying adviceon April 30, 2024 at 5:00 pm
Buying rechargeable batteries is an investment, as the best types will last for hundreds of hours of use. In fact, our tests have shown that the best AA rechargeable batteries give more than 400 hours ...
- How we test rechargeable batterieson April 30, 2024 at 5:00 pm
Our independent rechargeable battery reviews tell you what you need to know about a rechargeable battery before you buy a pack. This means you will only buy the best rechargeable batteries - the ones ...
- Best Rechargeable Hearing Aids Of 2024, According To Audiologistson April 29, 2024 at 10:39 pm
Rechargeable hearing aids are often a helpful solution, with batteries lasting more than 24 hours on a single charge in some models, plus Bluetooth compatibility, accompanying apps that host ...
- Ensurge Delivers First Shipment of Solid-State Lithium Microbatteries to Leading Consumer Electronics Companyon April 21, 2024 at 6:00 pm
The Ensurge 10-micron microbatteries have the energy density ... The innovative Ensurge Microbattery enables energy-dense rechargeable products that are ideal for form-factor-constrained ...
- Ensurge Delivers First Shipment of Solid-State Lithium Microbatteries to Leading Consumer Electronics Companyon April 21, 2024 at 5:00 pm
The Ensurge 10-micron microbatteries have the energy density and performance ... The innovative Ensurge Microbattery enables energy-dense rechargeable products that are ideal for ...
- More economical and sustainable rechargeable batterieson April 21, 2024 at 5:00 pm
More economical and sustainable rechargeable batteries. ScienceDaily . Retrieved May 16, 2024 from www.sciencedaily.com / releases / 2024 / 04 / 240422120637.htm ...
- The 5 Best Rechargeable Hand Warmers of 2024, Tested & Reviewedon July 26, 2023 at 9:52 pm
Lacey is a professional writer living in Southern California. She specializes in fitness, nutrition and various health topics. She not only has a passion for healthy living, but she also practices ...
- Rechargeable Battery Types - definitionon August 21, 2020 at 7:30 am
Cellphones of the past came equipped with rechargeable nickel-based batteries with (Ni-Cd and NiMH). In the past few years, however, most rechargeable batteries used in phones are Lithium-based.
The Latest Google Headlines on:
Rechargeable microbatteries
[google_news title=”” keyword=”rechargeable microbatteries” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]