What Can the Nanowire Battery Replace?

The silicon nanowire battery is expected to replace the lithium-ion battery. For example, with the lithium ion battery, a fully charged laptop can last for approximately two hours. Using the nanowire battery, a laptop’s battery life will last ten times longer; hence the battery life will be extended to twenty hours!

The lithium-ion battery’s anode, usually made with carbon material, has a limited quantity of lithium it can store. Stanford researchers discovered that if the carbon is replaced by silicon nanowires, the battery can store ten times more lithium allowing the battery to have a much longer battery life.

When the battery is charged, Dr. Yi Cui and his staff realized that as the battery absorbs positively charged lithium components, the silicon swells. When the battery is in use, the lithium atoms are released from the silicon allowing the silicon to shrink. This growing and shrinking can be compromising to the battery performance. For this reason, nanotechnology is implemented meaning lithium is placed in tiny nanowires allowing for the silicon to resist breakage.

http://webwormcpt.blogspot.com/2008/02/nanowire-battery-high-potential-of.html

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/247725

http://www.discusswireless.com/blog/new-silicon-nanowire-battery-has-10-times-more-power-than-the-usual-lithium-ion-cellphone-batteries/

Picture: http://www.lithium-batteries.net/laptop/dell/inspiron-6000-battery.html