New electrode design shrinks battery size

BBC : Reducing battery size and recharge time are two of the goals of current research. William King of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and his colleagues believe their new electrode design succeeds on both counts. They created a lattice of polystyrene spheres and then filled the spaces around the spheres with metal. After dissolving the spheres, they plated the metal framework with a nickelâtin alloy to create the anode, and with manganese oxyhydroxide to create the cathode. They alternated several anodes and cathodes on a glass surface and then enclosed them and filled the device with an electrolyte. The lattice structure of the electrodes significantly increases the battery’s surface area while keeping its volume extremely small. The result is a battery just as powerful as a traditional battery, but at 1/10th the size. The increased surface area also allows the new battery to recharge 1000 times faster. Several issues need to be addressed before the new design is ready for commercial development, however, including simplifying the fabrication process and replacing the highly combustible electrolyte with a safer, polymer-based one.