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New 'jelly' batteries could provide cheap, safe power for small electronics
Innovative polymer gel batteries promise a safer alternative to traditional lithium batteries.
Tue, Sep 13 2011 at 11:41 AM
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DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME: This a block of polymer gel that has been pierced with screws to illustrate that the batteries will be safe even if punctured, unlike traditional lithium batteries. (Photo: University of Leeds)
Is your laptop too heavy? Blame your battery — but thankfully, bulky, heavy and potentially dangerous lithium batteries won't be around forever. Ian Ward, a physics research professor at the University of Leeds in the U.K. has come up with a new polymer gel — in other words, a jelly — that could be used to create a new kind of lithium battery that would be cheaper, lighter and more efficient.
"The polymer gel looks like a solid film, but it actually contains about 70 percent liquid electrolyte," Ward said in a prepared release. "It's made using the same principles as making a jelly: you add lots of hot water to 'gelatin' — in this case there is a polymer and electrolyte mix — and as it cools it sets to form a solid but flexible mass."
According to a news release, the new polymer gel can be formed into a thin, flexible film through a low-cost process. This film, which would lie between a battery's electrodes, would eliminate one need of traditional lithium batteries — to have multiple cells kept apart by a porous polymer film separator.
In addition to reducing weight and size, these new batteries could be made at about 10 percent of the cost of creating current batteries, Ward told IT Pro magazine.
The innovation could improve the safety of lithium-ion batteries, which have a tendency to overheat and possibly burst into flames, like the 54,000 batteries recalled by HP last year. "Conventional lithium batteries use electrolytes based on organic liquids; this is what you see burning in pictures of lithium batteries that catch fire," said another battery expert, professor Peter Bruce of the University of St Andrews, in an interview with BBC News. "Replacing liquid electrolytes by a polymer or gel electrolyte should improve safety and lead to an all-solid-state cell."
The technology has been licensed to an American company, Polystor Energy Corporation, which is conducting trials to commercialize the gel batteries for use in portable consumer electronics.
The idea of using gel to conduct or generate electricity is not new. This video shows how you can create an electric circuit at home using lemons, potatoes and Jell-O dessert:
And while we're at it, here are some other creative things you can do with Jell-O.
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On Gilligan's Island, we had sea water and coconuts. Perhaps we could conscript the unemployed and have them stir sea water in coconuts to generate energy as part of a jobs creation/energy program. (And to answer the question you are dying to ask: MayAnn.)
Is this the same technology as car jel cell batteries? We used to use them in our land rovers because they climbed hills and went into rivers and got wet or at extreme angles. But the problem was that a jel car battery had a average life of just 1 year.
hemhem...gel
Note: this technology is being licensed by Motorola to Polystor. This is a big deal!
i once had a dream that i had made an airconditioned pair of sneakers! they kept feet cool in the summer!
Hope this works out better than the solar and wind energy scams....Solyndra anyone?
Solar is very viable and can be made cheaply. There is a new design that actually allows the panels to be shingle thin, look like shingles as they as produced in rolls. This technology however is being surpressed to continue to maximize profits.
"they need to be replaced about every 10 years."
That's a flat out lie. In fact most reputable solar companies have a 20+ year warranty on energy output. Wind turbines have a life expectancy of 20-30 years.
I suppose you support nuclear power, whats the half-life on spent nuclear fuel?
The chances of the solar panel company to honor that warranty are slim to none. Most companies won't be around 20 years from now or will have changed hands so many times they won't honor a previous company's warranty. Knowing that I'd still go solar if I had the money.
I am using solar panels for energy back up. and have had for for over 4 years, and they are fine. They were not that expensive, and instead of the Government spending money on wars, and black projects they could help Americans with alternative energy not nuclear, or gas, but then the big corporations wouldn't make no mo money, so it's a big Monopoly game. Just ask Stan Meyer. Gp ahead ask him! Yep that's what I thought..
Sharp? 20+ and not going anywhere.
A lot of our current electricity generation is already provided by solar and wind, so it's hardly a scam.
"The technology has been licensed to an American company" Go America!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
But it wasn't licensed FROM an American company. We didn't invent it. FAIL America,.
Whose side are you on?
No where in the article do they mention the elements that make up the battery. A gel discribes the material characteristics but not the compostion (e.g. Lithium). The Author needs to take a chemistry course and learn the Periodic table.
you need to re-read the article, he said "polymer gel"
The article clearly says "a new kind of lithium battery". I think the author is fine with his chemistry and this reader needs to work on his reading comprehension.
Actually I had a vision regarding a car that was a battery. Everything was made of mediums that could store an electrical charge which ran the electric motors and also recharged itself from its movement. Radical but I had this over 50 years ago!
Interesting concept........on a lighter note, if the seat tore or the dash cracked......it could electrocute you:)
won't work dude. friction losses alone dictate that. not to mention electrical losses just in heat alone
A perpetual energy machine is not a new idea, but it also isn't feasible. Yes, there are ways to approach one and make things more efficient but the idea of perpetual energy is something we can only dream of, as no chemical reaction is capable of keeping 100% of it's energy (or mass.. the two being intertwined and all). I maybe did a bad job explaining at as I'm not a physicist but maybe someone else can explain it better.
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