Viruses Boost Performance of Lithium-Air Battery Used In Electric Cars 66
rtoz writes "MIT researchers have found that adding genetically modified viruses to the production of nanowires will boost the performance of lithium-air battery used in electric cars. The key to their work was to increase the surface area of the wire, thus increasing the area where electrochemical activity takes place during charging or discharging of the battery (abstract). The increase in surface area produced by their method can provide a big advantage in lithium-air batteries' rate of charging and discharging. Unlike conventional fabrication methods, which involve energy-intensive high temperatures and hazardous chemicals, this process can be carried out at room temperature using a water-based process."
Viral Batteries (Score:3, Funny)
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Only problem is when you get into an accident you get AIDS.
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HIV? Or full blown AIDS?
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What's the performance of that Tesla when you have McAfee running on the battery?
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This would be a big thing (Score:3)
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OK but lithium-air batteries that don't explode in the rain would be quite something.
Now they won't explode in the rain, they'll merely sneeze...
What could possibly go wrong... (Score:4, Funny)
Fred: Dude, where's your car?
Sam: I don't know - I parked it hear like 2 hours ago.
Fred: Did you patch against the latest virus they found?
Sam: What?
Fred: Yeah, it caused the batteries to eat all the metal parts.
Sam: Crap.
Fred: Now if only you could download a copy of the car...
Re:What could possibly go wrong... (Score:5, Funny)
You wouldn't download a car. You wouldn't download a handbag. ...
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whoosh...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuxO6CZptck [youtube.com]
Re:Lithium and water? (Score:4, Informative)
The viruses were used to make manganese oxide (MnO) nanowires, which acted as the cathode material. The catalysts, electrolyte, and lithium comes in later.
Other prior research (Score:5, Interesting)
Researchers at the University of Maryland have been using the tobacco mosaic virus for similar purposes: http://phys.org/news/2010-12-virally-nano-electrodes-boost-energy-capacity.html [phys.org]
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They say we're young and we don't know...
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Well played. Well played indeed.
Practical use?? (Score:1)
Also, while this material was successfully tested through 50 cycles of charging and discharging, for practical use a battery must be capable of withstanding thousands of these cycles.
Show me a rechargeable battery I can buy now that will withstand thousands of cycles. I've got a box full of dead rechargeables that maybe lasted 100 cycles, many probably less than 50. Battery manufacturers have been promising charging cycles since the dawn of the rechargeable battery and have failing to deliver for an equally long time.
For practical use, even 50 cycles can be enough if it means 3 times more storage density.
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If one managed the state of charge (SoC) properly, then many of the newer lithium ion chemistries can handle thousands of charge cycles. It is key to manage operating temperature, charging temperature, and avoid charging too high and discharging too low. Most currently available lithium ion batteries are designed for 300 charge cycles even in 100% charge/discharge cycles. Apple's batteries in laptops and phones is supposed to be managed for 1000 charge cycles or so. Electric vehicles with lithium ion batter
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I wonder if you could use a System on a Chip (SoC) to manage your state of charge....
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Re:Practical use?? (Score:5, Informative)
I wonder why they don't put the minimum threshold higher on batteries. I've heard that completely discharging lithium batteries is really bad for them. But then why not just build in some extra capacity into the battery, and have it refuse to run once it reaches 20%.
That's actually what modern hybrid and EV battery management systems do. They also stop charging at about 80% of max capacity, because it's the top and bottom 20% of charge states where the maximum wear is. So a 100 kwh 1k charge cycle battery might be exactly identical to a 80 kwh 4k cycle battery.
It's generally not done with consumer electronics because they only expect them to last 1-2 years and weight/cost are bigger concerns than longevity.
It should be noted that when they talk about X numbers of 'charge cycles' it's from 0% to 100% even when it comes to applications where they really expect lots of partial charges - cell phones, EVs, and such. So if you charge it up 50%, then 20%, then 30%, that adds up to 1 cycle. Though if they're being honest they rate the expected cycles by the expected duty cycle - LiIon 'likes' partial charges, NiCad doesn't. Lead-Acid doesn't like being discharged, but tolerates being fully or even over charged the best out of the common chemistries.
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It's done. My antediluvian Nokia C2 has a cheat code which allows you to force the battery management software to give the entire charge, not just that fraction offered to maximise the number of charge cycles.
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That would be useful to have on all phones: a "I am doing XYZ important task, please let me have that last 10%; yes, I know it'll wear out faster, thanks, but grandma's in the hospital".
Welcome to the FUTURE! (Score:3)
My phone has one. Hey 1970 dude, if you can wait until 2010 you will be able to get the same thing in the exciting world of tomorrow!
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But when will we see it? (Score:5, Interesting)
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News just in (Score:2)
Product development takes time. It's the engineering and even marketing that takes time a decade or more after the science is done.
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Manufacturing large quantities efficiently also takes a LOT of time and money. First you need someone to front you $XXX millions (or $X billions) for a factory unless you can shoehorn it into a pre-existing industrial process. Then it may only take $XX millions.
So tell me why ... (Score:3)
Unlike conventional fabrication methods, which involve energy-intensive high temperatures and hazardous chemicals, this process can be carried out at room temperature using a water-based process."
Pray tell, why these hazardous biota are better than hazardous chemicals. What can go wrong?
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If all it took was one mutation to turn the tobacco mosaic virus into something that could infect humans readily and virulently, Nature would have done it already.
She is very good at optimizing things to reproduce. You're unlikely to make a superbug that She hasn't already tried out.
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But hazardous chemicals do not reproduce on their own, mutate on their own, they don't have an innate mechanism to go forth and multiply by commandeering resources from nature...
You do realise just how ridiculous that is, right?
Viruses and bacteria are everywhere and mutate constantly. They are not making these things compatible with humans so they are not more dangerous than any of the other million viruses you're exposed to on a daily basis. Unless you're an android full of wires, that is, instead of a human, then there might be a problem.
In any case, this is a production process, the finished cables will be 'dead' anyway.
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These are viruses, they can't reproduce on their own. Plus, well, 'Tobacco Patia' virus isn't something that's going to be crossing over to affect humans anytime soon. The tobacco lobby might be a touch worried...
More seriously, we've used biota for industrial production for centuries with limited issues.
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How'd you get the idea that a tobacco virus was involved here? The article says "M13". If you check with Google and Wikipedia, you'll find that it's a filimentous bacteriophage (it infects bacteria). And about committing sabotage on tobacco farmers, most tobacco diseases affect many other members of the nightshade family. Two important ones are potatoes and tomatoes.
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Some of the other groups are using tobacco mosaic virus, it's likely that Firethorn confused the projects.
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Yep, got them confused.
MIT PR is becoming embarassing (Score:5, Interesting)
MIT's PR operation is becoming embarrassing. At least once every two months, there's some announcement about "nano" something that's going to change the world. Then we never hear about it again. You look at the details, and it turns out somebody did something at lab scale which might possibly someday be useful, if there weren't other ways to do the same thing already.
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True that, but by the same token we at least know that some people are doing interesting, nifty, and potentially useful stuff, along with just good science and engineering - asking and trying to answer questions and advancing knowledge in the process.
In notebooks too (Score:2)
How do the viruses reproduce? (Score:2)
They can't infect lithium. What's going on here?
See, Teslas are dangeous... (Score:2)
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