Sony Creates Mega-Battery to Back Up Powerless Businesses
No doubt inspired by the tragic earthquake and resulting nuclear disaster in Japan, Sony has announced the ESSP-2000, a backup battery fit to keep a business afloat in the event of a power outage. Weighing in at just under 200 pounds, it's no lightweight, but it's capabilities definitely make up for its size. If your business should be unlucky enough to experience a power outage, the ESSP-2000 will kick in to provide 2.4kWh of electricity to the office. To put that number into perspective, a computer uses about .167 kWh of electricity in one hour.
The best part of this mega-battery is that it only takes two hours to recharge to 95 percent. This is due to the type of battery chemistry that Sony chose to use. The ESSP-2000 features olivine-type lithium-ion iron phosphate technology, a form of chemistry for rechargeable batteries that has a number of advantages over standard lithium-ion batteries (which use cobalt). First off, they are cheaper to manufacture, since they don't use expensive elements like cobalt. Secondly, they charge much faster. Third, they are non-toxic, and can be disposed of properly with very little effort, unlike more popular and extremely toxic lithium-ion technologies. Lastly (and probably the most impressive of all), Sony claims that the ESSP-2000 will last up to ten years!
The price of being able to continue to surf Facebook and fantasy sports even in the wake of a power outage or natural disaster? Two million yen, or $25,700 USD.
Source: Engadget
Stanford Researchers Create Transparent Battery
Those guys at Stanford University are pretty bright, aren't they? First they come up with paper batteries, then they discover efficiency-boosting technologies for lithium-ion batteries. Well, tack on another achievement, folks, because they have just created a transparent battery!
Professor Yi Cui and masters student Yuan Yang led a team of researchers that devised a way to create nanometer-wide grids that, when assembled properly, create a working lithium-ion battery. The best way to imagine it is to think of an incredibly small grid that is held together by a transparent, rubbery, and conductive compound called polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). The name looks like quite strange and is certainly a mouthful, but anybody who wears contact lenses will be quite familiar with PDMS.
The individual gridlines are composed of layers of metal, a special solution that contains "nano-sized active electrode materials" (aka the positive and negative ends of the battery), and a transparent gel that acts as a separator and electrolyte (aka the stuff in the middle that electricity passes through) simultaneously. Each one of these gridlines is 35 microns in width, making it impossible to see with the naked eye. This, in conjunction with the PDMS in which the grid sits, makes it an incredibly thin and transparent lithium-ion battery.
But how effective is it? Unfortunately, these transparent batteries are only half as powerful as their opaque brothers. Yang compares their energy density to that of nickel-cadmium batteries, an older technology that is most common in toys and other small electronics.
The good news is that what it lacks in capacity, it makes up in its lower costs. Cui claims that if they were to use low-cost metals, these transparent batteries could be as cheap as the AA and AAA batteries you see at your local supermarket.
Check out the video below from Stanford University to get a glimpse at the new technology. Professor Cui talks about having a transparent phone, but I personally think that would just make it twice as impossible to find. I'm more interested in cell phone accessories like cases or skins that double as backup batteries, without adding the additional bulk that current ones do.
Sources: Stanford University News via Engadget
Stanford Breakthrough Could Drastically Improve Lithium-Ion Batteries
Lithium ion batteries have been available commercially since the early 90s, powering our cameras, phones, laptops, and all sorts of mobile electronics. And they've been doing a pretty good job. Aside from being a bit fragile, they have remained the dominant battery technology for many years, seeing the advent of mp3 players, smartphones, and tablets such as the iPad or Galaxy Tab.
But although they are almost perfect for mobile devices, lithium-ion batteries have fallen short when it comes to heavy-duty applications such as in power tools and electric vehicles. In cases like this, batteries using nickel metal-hydride or nickel cadmium chemistry are used, because of their similar energy densities and lower costs of production.
But what if we could boost the output of lithium-ion batteries and make them worth the cost?
Like any other battery, lithium-ion batteries have an anode (aka the minus sign, or black end of the battery), a cathode (aka the plus sign, or red end of the battery), and an electrolyte. Depending on whether you are charging the battery or discharging it (read: using it) lithium ions will travel through the electrolyte, either from the anode to the cathode, or vice versa. The output of the battery is limited by the specific capacity of the materials that are used for both the cathode and the anode, so different batteries use different materials, yielding different capacities. This is in part due to the fact that your battery is only as good as the cathode or anode with the lowest specific capacity - an electrical bottleneck, if you will.
Researchers at Stanford University may have found a way to use sulphur to make the cathode of their lithium ion batteries, dramatically increasing their output. Whereas most materials used for cathodes have a specific capacity of 160 milliamp hours per gram (mAh/g) to a silicon anode's 4200 mAh, sulphur has a specific capacity of 1672 mAh/g. The only thing holding battery manufacturers back from increasing the capacity of their batteries is the fact that sulphur doesn't conduct well, and would physically degrade if used as a cathode.
But Hailiang Wang and his fellow researchers at Stanford University have found a way to make it work! Instead of using just sulphur, they've coated sulphur molecules in graphene, a versatile form of carbon. The graphene adds conductivity and physical stability to the sulphur, making it much more viable as a suitable material for making battery cathodes. This is just a breakthrough though, and they are still working on optimizing their discovery. For instance, they suggest that mixing this sulphur-graphene composite material with silicon could yield much more impressive results than the composite material by itself.
Source: Technology Review
Charge your Laptop battery in seconds
Batteries are an important part of our daily lives and help power many of devices that we do not seem to be able to get through the day without. In my case, it is my cellphone and laptop. I have many charges for both. I charge the batteries at home, at my office and in my car. Some may think I am paranoid but I do not want to be caught with dead batteries on my cellphone. Thank fully I work at shopxtreme and we have all sorts of gadgets to keep you powered up. We have quick chargers, car charger, conductive chargers, USB chargers, etc... But additional help is also on the way. New technology that allows you to charge your batteries in seconds.
Source: MIT
New Battery Models are here!
Hey guys! If you're waiting for replacement batteries for some of the brand new cameras and camcorders that were not available before, wait no more! They are finally in stock and ready to ship! Check out these 10 new models:
Olympus BLM5 / PS-BLM5 / EA-BLM5
Olympus BLS5 / PS-BLS5 / EA-BLS5
Panasonic BLC12 / DMW-BLC12 / DMW-BLC12T
Panasonic VW-VBL090 / VW-VBK180
We also have the following new batteries arriving in the next few weeks. Please check back often!
Canon BP-110
Casio NP-130
Panasonic BLD10 / DMW-BLD10 / DMW-BLD10T
Panasonic BCK7 / DMW-BCK7
Panasonic NCA-YN101F
Polaroid PoGo2
Samsung BP85A
Samsung IA-BP210E
Samsung IA-BP420E
Microsoft’s New Battery Tech Makes +/- Problems Old News
It's not everyday that a commodity like the battery gets a totally new twist put upon it, so when Microsoft introduced its Instaload technology in a press release today, it was hard to not sit up and pay attention.
For decades, mankind has been shackled by the need to differentiate between the positive and negative sides, or terminals, of the battery. Whether it be for a flashlight, remote control, toy car, or even for a charger, it has always been necessary too look at the battery tray, figure out which end of the battery needs to go in first, and load it up. If you put a battery in backwards, whatever you are trying to use will invariably not work, and if you are trying to load a battery into a charger and do it incorrectly, you risk damaging the battery permanently. To most people, this is a minor nuisance, but in some industries and applications, this sort of annoyance can become a big problem, or even a risk.
Microsoft's InstaLoad technology hopes to solve all these problems by allowing you to stick a battery in however you want. Backwards, forwards, positive terminal up, negative terminal up - a battery that uses this new tech will work, regardless of its orientation. It will work for both disposable and rechargeable batteries, and for CR123, AA, AAA, C or D batteries.
Microsoft is confident that this technology will be incredibly useful to humanity, to the point that they are offering it without royalties.
As to it's possible applications, they think that it will be most useful for "...devices that require frequent battery swap-outs, are used in less-than-ideal environments or use several batteries. Industries that could greatly benefit from this type of timesaving technology based on their environments include law enforcement, military, construction, outdoor sporting and camping."
Source: Engadget
Carbon Nanotubes Give New Life to Traditional Li-ion Cells
A company called EcoloCap Solutions, Inc. has just announced some impressive results by combining carbon nanotube technology with traditional lithium-ion battery cells. After being tested by an independent engineering and scientific consulting firm, the new cells were found to provide 200 Ampere-hours each. In addition to its significantly larger Amp-hour rating, its manufacture uses powdered lithium, making it much cheaper to produce.
EcoloCap's President and CEO, Michael Siegel, was quoted as saying: "...testing has demonstrated the efficiency of the battery as greater than 99% which is unique for any kind of battery. Testing has also demonstrated an actual increase in the power densities previously calculated. I believe that the Nano Lithium battery is the highest energy density battery to date."
More information will be available when the full report gets published later this week, so stay tuned. In the meantime, check out EcoloCap's website for for info on the company itself and what they do.
Source: Marketwire via Engadget
Panasonic’s New Li-ion Batteries Use Silicon, Boost Capacity by 30%
Panasonic has just announced a new type of lithium-ion rechargeable battery that will have 30% higher capacity than that of any existing batteries of the same size and type. The change they have made is in the anode of the battery. Whereas current lithium-ion batteries use graphite in their anodes, this new iteration will use silicon instead.
Silicon alloy can theoretically bring ten times the capacity that graphite currently supplies to lithium-ion batteries. However, problems arise with silicon anodes because of the material's tendency to increase in size by up to 400% when used in such applications. This would obviously make batteries structurally unsound and dangerous. However, Panasonic has made certain modifications to prevent this occurrence, and is currently planning on releasing these new batteries in 2012. What's more, testing has shown that the batteries can hold 80% charge after 500 charging cycles.
Immediate applications will be restricted to notebook computers. Ideally, however, Panasonic hopes to supply these newer lithium-ion batteries for use in automobiles.
Source: Tech-On via Engadget
The Guantanamo Bay of Batteries
Peter Roth is a man whose job entails one thing and one thing only. Destroying batteries. The government pays him to figure out (in a laboratory) the multitudes of ways that batteries can sizzle, fizzle, leak, flame, and explode, so that measures can be taken to prevent them from happening when consumers like you and I use them in everyday life.
Roth's lair of destruction is in Albuquerque, New Mexico, at the Sandia National Laboratories. It consists of a number of rooms behind a 2,000 pound door - just the type of thing you'd want between you and a malfunctioning lithium-ion battery spewing toxic fumes and flames. To put things in perspective, though, the explosions that Roth sets off pale in comparison to what could happen if any of the other (nuclear) research experiments in the building were to go awry.
In addition to putting batteries in situations that causes them to fail (such as high impact punctures, short circuits, submersion, etc.) Roth and his colleague, Chris Orendorff also test out what chemicals, when used in batteries, are more stable and safe than others. Their quest, which was noble enough to garner $4.2 million in funding from the Department of Energy, is to pass all of the information they gather to manufacturers, the military, and even NASA, who use the data to constantly improve. Recently, Roth and his work has gained more attention, with the advent of hybrid and electric vehicles that draw power from large lithium-ion batteries. With most if not all automotive companies coming out with such models, many questions are being raised about battery safety. What would happen to the lithium-ion battery pack of a Chevy Volt if it was punctured as it flew off a bridge into the salty depths of the ocean? Hopefully, Roth will figure that one out for us. And how to fix it too.
Source: Wall Street Journal via Gizmodo
GM Opens Battery Factory For the Volt
The $8,000, 220-cell, lithium-ion battery pack that powers the Chevy Volt
On Thursday, General Motors will open the GM Brownstown Assembly Plant, the "first lithium ion battery pack manufacturing plant in the U.S. operated by a major automaker."
Located in Brownstown Township, Michigan, the factory will assemble the lithium-ion battery packs that will power the Chevy Volt. The batteries that fill the packs will be assembled with batteries that will be made by LG Chem of South Korea. The battery packs, which consist of 220 cells, will cost about $8,000 each (yikes).
GM will be marking the event with a grand-opening ceremony, which will be attended by both Ed Whitacre, CEO of General Motors, and Steven Chu, U.S. Energy Secretary
With a new decade upon us, this opening could prove to be the first step in revitalizing the already wounded American car industry. Even though this plant will only be assembling the battery packs, hopefully operations can be expanded to include manufacturing components in the future, and give the Detroit Three a leg up in the automotive world.
Source: CNET