Indian Origin Scientist Designs Nanosized Batteries
Pulickel M. Ajayan, an Indian origin scientist who had been researching from years in the field of nanowire devices has finally emerged successful as he has packaged lithium ion batteries, which power mobiles and smartphones, into a single nanowire. To say possibly, the world at large runs on lithium ion batteries and such a great advancement in this field is a matter of deep appreciation.
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The schematic shows nanoscale battery/supercapacitor devices in an array, as constructed at Rice University. The devices show promise for powering nanoscale electronics and as a research tool for understanding electrochemical phenomenon at the nanoscale. (Credit: Ajayan Lab)
Giving technical details of the device the researchers said that the two versions of their battery had the first one as a sandwich with nickel/tin anode, polyethylene oxide (PEO) electrolyte and polyaniline cathode layersin which lithium ions would move efficiently through the anode to the electrolyte and then to the supercapacitor-like cathode, which would store the ions in bulk and give the device the ability to charge and discharge quickly.
"The idea here is to fabricate nanowire energy storage devices with ultrathin separation between the electrodes," said Arava Leela Mohana Reddy, study co-author and research scientist, according to a university statement.
The Rice University had invented one such device last December but it had the drawback that the cathode had to be attached from outside but the new device tucks the cathode inside the nanowires. That’s great, isn’t it? After having a hand at almost all the materials for devicing a suitable cathode, finally the scientists settled on the synthesized polymer known as polyaniline (PANI). Drop-coating the widened alumina pores with PEO coats the insides, encases the anodes and leaves tubes at the top into which PANI cathodes could also be drop-coated. An aluminum current collector placed on top of the array completes the circuit.
These new devices are about 50 micron tall and have a diameter of about the size of human hair, almost invisible when viewed on the edge! Truly speaking there is nothing impossible with these devices - they can even be scaled to greater distances as per the requirements of the application.
"There's a lot to be done to optimize the devices in terms of performance," said the paper's lead author, Sanketh Gowda, a chemical engineering graduate student at Rice. "Optimization of the polymer separator and its thickness and an exploration of different electrode systems could lead to improvements."
#-Link-Snipped-#
The schematic shows nanoscale battery/supercapacitor devices in an array, as constructed at Rice University. The devices show promise for powering nanoscale electronics and as a research tool for understanding electrochemical phenomenon at the nanoscale. (Credit: Ajayan Lab)
Giving technical details of the device the researchers said that the two versions of their battery had the first one as a sandwich with nickel/tin anode, polyethylene oxide (PEO) electrolyte and polyaniline cathode layersin which lithium ions would move efficiently through the anode to the electrolyte and then to the supercapacitor-like cathode, which would store the ions in bulk and give the device the ability to charge and discharge quickly.
"The idea here is to fabricate nanowire energy storage devices with ultrathin separation between the electrodes," said Arava Leela Mohana Reddy, study co-author and research scientist, according to a university statement.
The Rice University had invented one such device last December but it had the drawback that the cathode had to be attached from outside but the new device tucks the cathode inside the nanowires. That’s great, isn’t it? After having a hand at almost all the materials for devicing a suitable cathode, finally the scientists settled on the synthesized polymer known as polyaniline (PANI). Drop-coating the widened alumina pores with PEO coats the insides, encases the anodes and leaves tubes at the top into which PANI cathodes could also be drop-coated. An aluminum current collector placed on top of the array completes the circuit.
These new devices are about 50 micron tall and have a diameter of about the size of human hair, almost invisible when viewed on the edge! Truly speaking there is nothing impossible with these devices - they can even be scaled to greater distances as per the requirements of the application.
"There's a lot to be done to optimize the devices in terms of performance," said the paper's lead author, Sanketh Gowda, a chemical engineering graduate student at Rice. "Optimization of the polymer separator and its thickness and an exploration of different electrode systems could lead to improvements."
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