MIT Builds Efficient Nanowire Storage to Replace Car Batteries

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/research/4252623.html

MIT Builds Efficient Nanowire Storage to Replace Car Batteries

Could the ultracapacitor replace lithium ion in hybrids and plug-in vehicles? Our senior automotive editor already thinks the science adds up, but it’s in a tiny box at a messy lab that the future of automotive efficiency is taking a surprising turn toward extending range and battery life.

By Erik Sofge
Published on: February 29, 2008

...

The problem with capacitors—and the reason they’ve taken such a back seat to batteries since they were first stumbled upon in the ’60s—is capacity. Even ultracapacitors can manage only a fraction of the power of a lead-acid or lithium-ion battery. So the recipe for a better ultracapacitor is more surface area. Researchers have already expanded capacity with the addition of activated carbon coatings, which are porous enough to provide an effective surface area that’s 10,000 times greater than the materials previously used to gather ions. Around four years ago, Schindall was reading about various experiments that utilized nanowire arrays, when he experienced—though no scientist, Schindall included, would ever actually put it this way—the proverbial “eureka” moment.

By replacing the porous activated carbon used in ultracapacitors with tightly bunched nanotubes, Schindall believed that the ion-collecting surface area could be increased by as much as five. Since current ultracapacitors can store around 5 percent of the energy in an equivalent-size battery, the addition of nanowires could bring this up to 25 percent. “And you can also operate at a higher voltage with the nanotubes, and that’s about another factor of two in energy,” he says. “We are hopeful—we haven’t proven it—that we can get up somewhere between 25 and 50 percent of a battery’s energy. At that point, it becomes a compelling device for many applications.”

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The process of creating the nanowire arrays is relatively straightforward—a tiny piece of conductive substrate is coated with a catalyst, and then placed in a vacuum chamber. The chamber is then filled with carbon gas, and the square is heated until a black, sootlike coating appears. After about 10 minutes, the tile is complete, and the nanowires are fully grown. The challenge has been in reaching the theoretical capacity that Schindall’s team originally calculated. So far, the nanotubes can match the energy storage of standard ultracapacitors, but the goal remains to boost that capacity by a factor of five or even 10. “A couple of years ago, we thought we were six months to a year away. And that time has come and gone,” he says.

The next step for this project is to create test cells about the size of watch batteries to be distributed to existing ultracapacitor manufacturers. The team will also release its latest results, but by allowing companies to independently verify that data, Schindall believes it could demonstrate the commercial viability of the nanotube approach. He hopes to have those test cells ready within a year, or possibly as soon as a few months. Still, it could take years for ultracapacitors of any kind to reach the kind of production volume and capacity necessary to rival batteries in the marketplace. So for now, these nano-dusted squares are going back in their tray and back on the shelf to fight for energy storage supremacy another day.

[kestrel91316]

1. I remember the old days when "nanotechnology" was known as "chemistry".

And chemical engineers were not "nanotechnologists".

[phantom power]

2. Maybe we should call it "chemistry 2.0" ...

Or 3.0?

[OKIsItJustMe]

3. There is a difference

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nanotechnology refers broadly to a field of applied science and technology whose unifying theme is the control of matter on the atomic and molecular scale, normally 1 to 100 nanometers, and the fabrication of devices with critical dimensions that lie within that size range.

It is a highly multidisciplinary field, drawing from fields such as applied physics, materials science, interface and colloid science, device physics, supramolecular chemistry (which refers to the area of chemistry that focuses on the noncovalent bonding interactions of molecules), self-replicating machines and robotics, chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, biological engineering, and electrical engineering. Much speculation exists as to what may result from these lines of research. Nanotechnology can be seen as an extension of existing sciences into the nanoscale, or as a recasting of existing sciences using a newer, more modern term.

Two main approaches are used in nanotechnology. In the "bottom-up" approach, materials and devices are built from molecular components which assemble themselves chemically by principles of molecular recognition. In the "top-down" approach, nano-objects are constructed from larger entities without atomic-level control. The impetus for nanotechnology comes from a renewed interest in Interface and Colloid Science, coupled with a new generation of analytical tools such as the atomic force microscope (AFM), and the scanning tunneling microscope (STM). Combined with refined processes such as electron beam lithography and molecular beam epitaxy, these instruments allow the deliberate manipulation of nanostructures, and led to the observation of novel phenomena.

Examples of nanotechnology in modern use are the manufacture of polymers based on molecular structure, and the design of computer chip layouts based on surface science. Despite the great promise of numerous nanotechnologies such as quantum dots and nanotubes, real commercial applications have mainly used the advantages of colloidal nanoparticles in bulk form, such as suntan lotion, cosmetics, protective coatings, drug delivery<1>, and stain resistant clothing.

...

This (of course) is an example of the "bottom-up" approach.

I understand your frustration. It was the "top-down" nanotechnology that we got to read about in science fiction. Almost infinitely small machines being used to build other infinitely small machines. Somehow, this just doesn't seem as dramatic.

I felt the same way when "Artificial Intelligence" got dumbed down to the point where "Expert Systems" were described as AI. (This is not the AI I had in mind thank-you.)

[eppur_se_muova]

4. You need the 'nano' prefix to get grant money.

It gets pretty shameless at times.

[Javaman]

5. I have this idea for a nano skyscraper...nt