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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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It's amazing to me how people don't appreciate the work of scientists and engineers. Of course some technologies don't pan out! Edison tested thousands of electric light bulbs before he found one that worked. We need to support scientists in all that they do. They keep us moving forward.
Edison was a loser. He invented a light bulb that could last decades, even centuries. He had no idea that making a bulb that lasts that long is anti-consumer and anti-patriotic. if he truly cared for the consumer, he would have stuck to a bulb that lasts 6 months max.
another hyped technology that will drift away and never take off.
usuallly these kinds of articles are very upbeat, then the last line is something like, "the manufacturer expects these to be widesprea 5-10 years." and those never pan out either. get over future hype people, we have had little progress in 50 years.
I remember seeing a story on 60 minutes 2 years ago about a power cell that was the size of a bread box and would power a house using minimal fuel. several big companies had them installed at their headquarters around silicon valley for testing. never heard another word.
if you showed my smartphone to someone in 1995, I'm pretty sure his head would explode
No. The government would have kidnapped you and your entire family and executed them before your eyes until you talked.
REALLY!? I'm 56, and I can certainly say my life is a world away from where it was when I was 6. In fact, most of the stuff I use in a normal day wasn't around just 20 or 30 years ago.
Crawl out from under that rock!
little progress in 50 years? Really? Use batteries much? The lithium ion battery their talking about replacing has only come of age in the last 5 to 10 years and now we are talking about replacing them. Huge strides in battery tech in the last few years. Where have you been?
Little progress in 50 years? Based on what criteria? I would say the transmittal of all voice and data over wifi, cell phones, personal computers, hybrid cars, and solar power technology are all pretty good. Oh and yeah, landing a man on the moon wasn't too bad either.
50 years ago, no one thought that in 50 years practically everyone would be walking around with a phone in their pocket, a laptop computer in their briefcase, a desktop in their study, and a 6 dollar cup of coffee at a starbucks on every other corner. sure am glad we're only making a little progress. heh
They had the same jell battery concept in the movie demolition man
when Wesley Snipes blew up the car.
They called it Capacitance Gel.
ITS peanut butter jelly time!!!!
How about peanut butter????
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