Nanowire batteries survive 200,000 recharge cycle

Apr 23, 2016 00:00 GMT  ·  By

A team of scientists from the University of California, Irvine (UCI), have accidentally stumbled over a method of creating batteries using nanowires that can last over 200,000 recharging cycles without breaking down or losing performance.

The quest for a long-lasting battery has given pressing headaches to scientists in laboratories around the world. While conventional battery technology has already reached its peak, researchers have been looking into using nanowires as the primary building structure for the batteries of tomorrow.

Nanowires are microscopic wires, thousands of times thinner than a human hair. Nanowires are very conductive, and because they can be bundled in large numbers in small areas, offer a very large surface for transferring electrons and storing energy.

The problem with nanowires is that they're extremely brittle, and currently don't provide a long battery life, fracturing or degrading in time. Most researchers would agree that the technology has not been explored enough and that there's more to it.

Doctoral student gets its Eureka moment

Casually exploring various nanowire combinations, UCI scientists have discovered that coating gold nanowires in a manganese dioxide shell and then dipping the whole setup in Plexiglas gel allows them to create reliable batteries that can be recharged for over 200,000 times without losing storage capability or cracking under pressure. Previously, nanowire batteries rarely survived 5,000 recharge cycles.

UCI doctoral candidate Mya Le Thai made this breakthrough and, together with her colleagues, published their findings yesterday. The trick was to replace the liquid electrolyte with a gel.

"The coated electrode holds its shape much better, making it a more reliable option," Thai said for UCI's website. "This research proves that a nanowire-based battery electrode can have a long lifetime and that we can make these kinds of batteries a reality."

Depending on the battery's capacity, 200,000 recharge cycles could mean years, if not an entire human's lifetime. The technology is not only limited to pocket size batteries for your kids' toys, but for smartphones, laptops, and why not, electric cars.

Technical details are available in Thai's paper called 100k Cycles and Beyond: Extraordinary Cycle Stability for MnO2 Nanowires Imparted by a Gel Electrolyte, available for download.