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."

Hardly a nanobattery

[Xeth]

FTFA:

Using a silicon or glass substrate, the team from TAU created a matrix of tiny holes each 50 microns in diameter and 500 micron deep.

Atoms are on the order of a nanometer in diameter. These batteries are hundreds of thousands of times larger. Hell, you could probably hook these up with current chip lithography techniques (they're doing tens of microns now). Interesting microbattery, but let's keep the nanotech hype out of it.

Yeah? Cos altairnano have lion-titanate batteries

[Colin Smith]

And it's on the market now. 10,000-15,000 cycles with little or no degradation, double the energy density of current li-ions. Ideal for automotive stuff, they're already shipping to customers.

http://www.altairnano.com/ [altairnano.com]
 

Non-commital language

[noidentity]

"...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?)

No vaporware tag?

[Ninjaesque One]

Come on, you all know that in tech, 2-4 years has a 50% chance of equalling never.

scaling laws are unfavorable for nano batteries!

[caffeineboy]

Since power is proportional to volume (length^3), scaling laws for a nano-scale battery are VERY unfavorable. I'm not sure how they will get over this hurdle.

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.