The devices have been proposed by UIUC experts

Dec 21, 2009 10:47 GMT  ·  By

Scientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have recently proposed a new battery design that could lead to the emergence of an entire class of new devices. The digital quantum battery is a concept that could, at least theoretically, exceed the performances of its lithium-ion competitors by several orders of magnitude. The only thing that needs to come true for that to happen is the battery reaching its theoretical potential in real life, Technology Review reports.

The new concept is heavily reliant on quantum effects, its creators say. Their plans call for several billions of nanoscale capacitors being placed together in the same battery. The team says that quantum effects – the peculiar interactions that appear between particles at the atomic scale and lower – would then ensure a much more effective energy storage and retrieval. Usually, batteries are made of two macroscale electrodes, which are separated by an insulating material. When applying voltage, the electrical charge in the insulator grows, storing energy. But the amounts are limited, and there is always the potential for unplanned battery drainage.

The UIUC team proposes that these capacitors be built at the nanoscale, with the electrodes placed just ten nanometers, or about 100 atoms, apart from each other. Such a setup, they say, would prevent the arcing phenomenon that is the main cause of drainage in larger capacitors. The main defense against arcing would be the same quantum effects that boost storage capabilities. Scientists have been aware for many years of the fact that nanoscale capacitors exhibit unusually large electrical fields, but, “People didn't realize that a large electric field means a large energy density, and could be used for energy storage that would far surpass anything we have today,” UIUC physicist Alfred Hubler says.

The expert is also the lead author of a new paper detailing the finds, which appears in the latest issue of the respected scientific journal Complexity. The total amount of energy that digital quantum batteries could hold may be between two and ten times larger than currently possible with lithium-ion ones. In addition, the power density in the hypothesized devices, meaning the speed at which energy can be stored or released, could exceed that of conventional batteries by several orders of magnitude.