Researchers Accidentally Make Batteries Last 400 Times Longer

Popular Science reports on a fortuitous mistake made by researchers at UC Irvine.

Smartphones, tablets, and most other electronics rely on rechargeable batteries, but after a few thousand uses the batteries start to lose their ability to hold a charge. The batteries of today are mainly lithium, and over time that lithium corrodes inside the battery.

Instead of lithium, researchers at UC Irvine have used gold nanowires to store electricity, and have found that their system is able to far outlast traditional lithium battery construction. The Irvine team’s system cycled through 200,000 recharges without significant corrosion or decline.

Read more.


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1 Comment

  1. I’ll be honest–I thought from the headline that this was talking about discharge time. I’m not sure how to succinctly word the headline to clearly talk about the multi-cycle lifespan until chemical breakdown, but…darn.

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