World's First Battery Fueled By Air

Hugh Pickens writes "The Telegraph reports on the revolutionary 'STAIR' (St Andrews Air) battery could now pave the way for a new generation of electric cars, laptops and mobile phones. The cells are charged in a traditional way but as power is used an open mesh section of battery draws in oxygen from the surrounding air that reacts with a porous carbon component inside the battery, which creates more energy and helps to continually 'charge' the cell as it is being discharged. The battery has a greater storage capacity than other similar-sized cells and can emit power up to 10 times longer. 'The key is to use oxygen in the air as a re-agent, rather than carry the necessary chemicals around inside the battery,' says Professor Peter Bruce of the Chemistry Department at the University of St Andrews. 'Our target is to get a five to ten fold increase in storage capacity, which is beyond the horizon of current lithium batteries.'"

Powered by Air?

[newcastlejon]

Or is just hot air?

Almost there

[cat_jesus]

Now we just need to create a battery that recharges using CO2. That would be the invention of the century.

Re:Question

[narfspoon]

Would there be any danger of using this in a confined space?

Only if you had beans for dinner.

Re:Almost there

[MyLongNickName]

You are in luck [wikipedia.org].

(I love having to wait five minutes between posts)

Re:Question

[L4t3r4lu5]

Yes, it would be extremely dangerous to use this near any source of ignition.

At least, that is unless you had some kind of highly complex extraction [bizfriendmarketing.com] device [toolstation.com] to remove the oxygen build up.

Re:Powered by Air?

[L4t3r4lu5]

Neither, it's vapourware.

Thank you, thank you... Try the duck, the veal is off tonight.

billions of years ago

[circletimessquare]

for billions of years, for billions of generations, strange archaic anaerobacteria and primitive algae slaved their entire lives, heck, their entire species, to make your atmosphere one fifth oxygen

all so you could one day watch the family guy on hulu.com at a starbucks in pasadena

doesn't seem just

Re:Question

[Chabil Ha']

Who knows, but it certainly gives new meaning to vaporware.

Re:Question

[L4t3r4lu5]

Offtopic? This thing consumes oxygen when it charges.

Mods must be having a bad day, or just not reading TFA. Oh yeah, this is SlashDot. Par for the course.

Re:Wake me in 2014

[Overfiend1976]

Seems like every new thing is going to be commercially available in 5 years. Why can't we have the future now? Do I have to move to Japan?

No, you had to move to Japan 5 years ago :P

Re:billions of years ago

[foniksonik]

Slaved? Slaved? Oxygen is their poop!!! We're finally just recycling the damn stuff. And yes I think that watching Family Guy on Hulu at a Starbucks is a fine use for archaic anaerobacteria poop... it's strangely fitting in fact.

Re:Question

[Anonymous Coward]

If you cannot leave your current planet, it's a confined space.

Re:Question

[L4t3r4lu5]

I'm pretty sure I'm stuck within this universe.

THE WALLS ARE CLOSING IN, MAN!

Re:Powered by Air?

[2names]

Why couldn't we double the lithium and store it in some sort of uniform structure, like a crystal...hmmm...

Re:Question

[L4t3r4lu5]

Sorry to Chocolate Rain on your parade, but urnotdoinitrite.

Re:More informative article

[DoofusOfDeath]

... and the positive electrode is essentially a combined catalyst/adsorbent for Li2O2 which forms during electricity generation.

So you're saying that a better battery technology involving dilithium comes out, just coincidentally, the same month as a new Star Trek movie?

Damn it I hate viral marketing.

Re-agent!?

[kandela]

Since when is reagent hyphenated?