Apr 10 2008

Charging Ahead with Nanotechnology Posted by Angela Baker in Nanotechnology, lithium-ion, carbon nanotubes, battery

 

With all of the technology that is being continuously introduced and used, it would only seem logical in our quest for a green world to apply some of the renewable energy efforts to this spectrum.  That is exactly what some scientists are looking into with theirresearch on how nanotechnology can be used with lithium batteries.

 

According to Science News, a report that will be published in International Journal of Nanomanufacturing asserts that "carbon nanotubes can prevent such batteries from losing their charge capacity over time."  The batteries they are speaking of are the lithium-based batteries that are found in commonly used devices such as MP3 players, laptop computers, and cell phones. 

 

As any of us who partake of these various technologies are quite aware of, with continued use, the battery power just seems to lose its life.  As the news story reports, elements such as hot and cold temperatures help this reduction process along even more.  Scientists have been researching this degradation process for awhile, and have looked into silicon to replace the universally used lithium-ion batteries.  However, due to the fast rate that silicon also degrades, they have had to search even further.

 

This is where nanotechnology comes into play.  As Science News states, "Shengyang's Hui-Ming Cheng and colleagues have turned to carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to help them use silicon (Si) as the battery anode but avoid the problem of large volume change during alloying and de-alloying."  By introducing the carbon nanotubes to the silicon, they seem to be solving some of the problems that previously existed.

 

The whole process is quite amazing.  "The researchers grew carbon nanotubes on the surface of tiny particles of silicon using a technique known as chemical vapor deposition in which a carbon-containing vapor decomposes and then condenses on the surface of the silicon particles forming the nanoscopic tubes. They then coated these particles with carbon released from sugar at a high temperature in a vacuum. A separate batch of silicon particles produced using sugar but without the CNTs was also prepared."

 

The scientists used these two diverse batches and compared them.  What they found was remarkable - the batch using the carbon produced a discharge capacity twice that of the one which only contained the silicon particles.

 

There seems to be many reasons that have prompted research into better material used to create batteries.  Reports of fires found to be ignited by lithium-ion batteries, although rare, seem to have caused much attention to be placed on safer materials.  The general complaint many have regarding the increased reduction of device batteries after continued use is likely another reason that prompted the research.  Whatever the likely combination was, this new research could be monumental in how users of technological devices power up their gadgets. 

 

Nanotechnology is not the only material researchers are using in their quest for a better battery, but it does seem to be one of the options that show much promise.