The Smallest Batteries in the World

A new research funded by DARPA is trying to go even further in micro-technology and create the smallest batteries on Earth.

Lithium-ion batteries are everywhere, as they are a major source of power for today's electronic devices – phones, laptops, iPods, etc. but these new batteries will be so small, that the largest of them would be smaller than a grain of salt.

The idea behind this project is to one day have batteries that could power the electronics and mechanical components of tiny micro- to nanoscale devices.

This project is a very large one and it includes the best researchers in the United States, so it is only normal that the one in charge of the electrolyte that allows charge to flow between electrodes, is Jane Chang, an engineer at the University of California, Los Angeles.

She is in charge of the design of this component and she presented her results yesterday, at the AVS 57th International Symposium & Exhibition, taking place this week at the Albuquerque Convention Center in New Mexico.

Chang needs to coat well-ordered micro-pillars (nanowires) with electrolyte - the nanowires are built to maximize the surface-to-volume ratio, increasing the potential energy density.

The electrolyte is a conductive material which allows current to travel within a battery.

The researchers used atomic layer deposition and successfully managed to apply the solid electrolyte lithium aluminosilicate to the nanomaterials.

The atomic layer deposition is a slow process which is precise enough to allow only one-atom-thick layers of material to be sprayed on a surface.

Chang said that the entire team “are trying to achieve the same power densities, the same energy densities as traditional lithium ion batteries, but we need to make the footprint much smaller.”

To be sure of the success of the project, Chang works in three dimensions with Bruce Dunn, as well as with other researchers at UCLA.

This research is still at the beginning, and even if other components of these 3D micro-batteries have been developed, they still need to be assembled and integrated before having a fully functional battery.