Slashdot Log In
Nanobatteries — Safer By Design
Posted by
kdawson
on Tue Jan 16, 2007 09:44 PM
from the no-more-go-boom dept.
from the no-more-go-boom dept.
Iddo Genuth writes "Conventional Li-Ion batteries have been known to catch fire and explode. A new, safer type of Li-Ion nanobattery that might help prevent such mishaps has been developed by researchers at Tel Aviv University. These nanobatteries should prove useful for various micro devices used for medical, military, and a range of other applications. They are 2-4 years from commercial availability."
Related Stories
[+]
Dell Notebooks Catch On Fire! 188 comments
Mr_Person writes "Dell Computer will recall about 284,000 notebook batteries due to a flaw in batteries incorporated in Inspiron 5000 and 5000(e) notebooks. The flaw causes the batteries to produce excessive amounts of heat, in fact,
at least one notebook has even gotten to the point of
catching on fire!" I thought the worst part of Dell Laptops was the fact that they broke all the time, and that they billed me for months after I shipped them the laptop back claiming they never got it. Maybe you could use Dell Laptops as an alternate heat source, what with rising gas prices *rimshot*
[+]
Dell's Exploding Laptop Autopsy 141 comments
An anonymous reader writes "Dell has gone to the Consumer Product Safety Commission looking for help determining the cause of death for its exploding laptop. Dell has been blaming the lithium ion battery; the commission seems to have had a few problems with those batteries in the past."
[+]
Alan Cox's Exploding Laptop 339 comments
Bowie J. Poag writes to mention a page put up to commemorate the explosion of Alan Cox's laptop. From the article: "Alan was on the other side of the room from the laptop. I was elsewhere. He yelled out, I ambled towards the room in my own good time, and then I heard 'Fire! Real fire! Call the fire brigade, now!' and I speeded up a bit. From Alan subsequently, I gather there was an explosion and flying pieces of laptop, and a fireball, and a couple of fires started where (presumably) boiling battery landed, and one fragment smashed an LCD monitor. And then there was smoke and smell (there is still smell) and smoke alarm wailing and firemen and sirens and paramedics (happily unneeded) and police and a man with a notebook asking questions for the fire report.'"
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Full
Abbreviated
Hidden
Loading... please wait.
So... (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Micro devices and Explosions (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Why Wait? (Score:3, Informative)
Of course, you will have to compete with Uncle Sam, specifically, NSA and CIA. [infinitepo...utions.com]
Yawn . . . . (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Hardly a nanobattery (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Hardly a nanobattery (Score:5, Informative)
You're off by a bit there :) Atoms have diameters measured in picometers; bond lengths tend to be tends to a hundred or so picometers. Current high end chips are made on 65nm processes these days, with 45 and 30 (iirc) not too far off -- but the point is silicon litho techniques do tens of nanometers, not microns. You can get micron level precision with machine tools, even -- very expensive ones, granted, but still :)
I agree completely though, calling this nanotech is a little iffy when you can see the things with merely a strong magnifying glass and resolve details with a decent optical microscope.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
'Nano' is routinely abused here (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm obviously not alone is being heartily sick of anything involving components parts which are on an atomic scale (e.g.... uh, CHEMICALS) being referred to as 'nano'-whatever. For instance a while back we had this [slashdot.org] idiotic story about 'lead compounds' producing 'nanocrystals' and being used by the ancient Egyptians.
Next on slashdot: scientists develop nanobreathing technology using a nanogas mixture containing nanoparticles only an few atoms wide! Revolutionary nanopower technique delivers charged nanoparticles to electrical devices through ordinary wire! Nanolightbulbs emitting nanophotons found to have been in use since the 18th century! Nanocar constructed entirely from nanoparticles of metal, plastic and glass runs entirely on nano-fuel only a few carbon atoms long!
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah? Cos altairnano have lion-titanate batteries (Score:3, Interesting)
http://www.altairnano.com/ [altairnano.com]
Re:Yeah? Cos altairnano have lion-titanate batteri (Score:2)
Do the same charging circuits work? I'm already in the 'red zone' on my MacBook Pro and I've only be using it for an hour and a half... must have more power!
Re:Yeah? Cos altairnano have lion-titanate batteri (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Safer? (Score:2, Insightful)
mood/pessimistic (yeah, I read the myspace post.)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
wow! (Score:5, Funny)
Non-commital language (Score:2, Interesting)
"...that might help prevent such mishaps..."
I might possibly be pushed more towards apparent annoyance by this non-commital language. Let's start with the unqualified version, then add the qualifiers one by one:
...that prevents such mishaps... (good, a solution!)
...that helps prevent such mishaps... (so they will still happen, they'll just be reduced)
...that might help prevent such mishaps... (so it might not even do anything?)
Little late to the game... (Score:2)
...as there's a Boston firm that made the packs that are in one of the brands of power tools (Milkwalkee I think?); they can take a recharge rate much, much higher than most battery packs, and the chargers are using a fraction of the maximum rate. The packs don't have to cool down after being drained before getting charged, etc. Google says the technology is lithium-manganese based.
There's also a Japanese firm that is making safer lithium ion packs (so they're cheaper from a materials standpoint.) They
No vaporware tag? (Score:2, Interesting)
Fundamental flaw in logic. (Score:5, Insightful)
But, again, they've put the batteries in a series/parallel network. They don't mention that a short could take place in places in the network other than exactly across one cell. Let's say an impurity spec lands across a couple wires. Depending on which couple wires, you might have shorted just a few microcells, or you could be shorting out the whole battery.
The reason Li-Ion batteries are dangerous is the sheer energy density. Rearranging that energy with a different battery structure isn't going to negate the fact that, simplistically, you somewhere have two conductors across which is the entire potential of the battery. (Unless you divide the battery into segments and give each segment a unique load. However, that would require a fundamental re-thinking of how electronic devices are powered.)
scaling laws are unfavorable for nano batteries! (Score:3, Interesting)
Just like nano-sized heat engines, nano sized batteries have a big problem in this department. There may be advantages in internal resistance or peak current, but the power density of such a battery, not to mention the cost, seem unfavorable.
omg (Score:3, Funny)