A benchmark version of the world’s smallest battery has been created, led by researcher Jianyu Hunag of Sandia National Laboratories.
The battery features a single nanowire anode one seven-thousandth the thickness of a human hair, and is a recharageable and lithium-based.
This new battery and technology gleaned from its study will be used to improve new generations of vehicles, laptops, and cell phones.
“What motivated our work,” says Huang, “is that lithium ion batteries [LIB] have very important applications, but the low energy and power densities of current LIBs cannot meet the demand. To improve performance, we wanted to understand LIBs from the bottom up, and we thought in-situ TEM could bring new insights to the problem.”
A single tin oxide nanowire anode 100 nanometers in diameter and 10 micrometers long makes this battery the smallest in the world. The tin oxide nanowire doubles in length during charging – which can help avoid short circuiting.
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