A revolutionary conducting polymer enables the use of low-cost, high-energy silicon for the next generation of lithium-ion battery anodes
The anode is a critical component for storing energy in lithium-ion batteries. A team of scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has designed a new kind of anode that can absorb eight times the lithium of current designs, and has maintained its greatly increased energy capacity after over a year of testing and many hundreds of charge-discharge cycles.
The secret is a tailored polymer that conducts electricity and binds closely to lithium-storing silicon particles, even as they expand to more than three times their volume during charging and then shrink again during discharge. The new anodes are made from low-cost materials, compatible with standard lithium-battery manufacturing technologies. The research team reports its findings in Advanced Materials, now available online.
More here: http://newscenter.lbl.gov/news-releases/2011/09/23/better-li-ion-batteries/
Given this - "The new anodes are made from low-cost materials, compatible with standard lithium-battery manufacturing technologies." - I doubt it will take more that 24 months to bring to market, possibly less.
The actual article also says - ".....the new PF-based anode is not only superior but economical." So if it will mean that it costs manufacturers less to produce a cell that they can charge more for then they'll be looking to do it as quickly as humanly possible, won't they !
I think we are tending to be somewhat shortsighted here. It will be nice if we get longer run times. But the real driving force is surely electric cars for which the only real problem is range between charges. A significant boost here could truly have a very significant impact on the market.
I don't think anyone is being short sighted ...the applications are endless ..we definitely need longer and stronger running batteries and always have ...just don't hold your breath.trhe 18650/////lithium ion batteries have been researched harder than any battery on the planet.All of these "announcements " of new cheap technology are cries for funding and sorely lacking any impartial look are the shortcomings as well as benefits to a possible new technology .
new products are slow to hit the market in a bad economy people still need to move old stock .how interested are you really in a 4400mah 18650 battery that costs 20$ each ?
TBH I'm not bothered about the longer runtimes possible in flashlights. They're easy to swap cells in. But in a small country like the UK an improvement from 100 mile range to 200 miles range in an electric car is a truly game changing proposition.
Given my laptop cells are currently 2400mAh, I'd be very, very willing to drop the cash for nearly double the runtime. Currently my only other option is a 9-cell, 3rd party battery that is more of a blunt weapon than a 3D mag.
