scientists have developed a battery made from a sliver of
wood coated with tin that shows promise for becoming a tiny, long-lasting,
efficient and environmentally friendly energy source which is 1,000 times thinner than a sheet of paper!
Lead author Hongli Zhu and other team members describe
lab experiments in which the device performed successfully though 400
charge-discharge cycles, putting it among the longest-lasting of all sodium-ion
nanobatteries. Batteries using the new technology would be best suited for
large-scale energy storage applications, such as wind farms or solar energy
installations, the report indicates.
Using sodium instead of lithium, as many rechargeable
batteries do, makes the battery environmentally benign. Sodium doesn't store
energy as efficiently as lithium, so you won't see this battery in your cell
phone -- instead, its low cost and common materials would make it ideal to
store huge amounts of energy at once, such as solar energy at a power plant.
"Pushing sodium ions through tin anodes often weaken
the tin's connection to its base material," said Li, an associate
professor of mechanical engineering. "But the wood fibers are soft enough
to serve as a mechanical buffer, and thus can accommodate tin's changes. This
is the key to our long-lasting sodium-ion batteries."
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