Nanobatteries — Safer By Design

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."

Why Wait?

[WindBourne]

http://www.mrs.org/s_mrs/sec_subscribe.asp?CID=255 3&DID=117686&action=detail [mrs.org]">You can buy the better ones in Colorado.
Of course, you will have to compete with Uncle Sam, specifically, NSA and CIA. [infinitepo...utions.com]

Re:Hardly a nanobattery

[evanbd]

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.

Re:Safer?

[Hittite Creosote]

There have always been nanoscale particles in the atmosphere, even more so since the Industrial Revolution started. We've been living with nanoparticles ever since we learnt to make fire. Some materials get *safer* as they get smaller - one reason asbestos fibres are dangerous is not because they are so narrow but because they are (relatively) so long - nano width, but micro length. The body can't get rid of them, so forms scarring in the lungs instead. Something that is nano in all directions is more easily got rid of by the body's immune system (I'm more concerned by nanotubes, some of which can be very long, than by nanoparticles smaller in all dimensions than a human white blood cell). Asbestos is also dangerous because of the ease with which it gets into the air when in a friable form. Nanoparticles firmly bonded into a matrix aren't that much of a danger. So the reality is that they're not harmless, they're not incredibly deadly, they're somewhere in between. Where exactly we don't know yet.