Researchers from the University of Maryland came up with a single structure that integrates all the parts of a battery, proving that it's possible for energy storage components to be scaled down.
Dubbed a nanopore, the structure is essentially a tiny hole in a sheet of ceramic that can hold electrolytes to transport electrical charge between the nanotube electrobes located at both ends. It's in testing right now, but the nanopore is performing very well. According to the researchers, the tiny battery can be charged fully within 12 minutes thousands of times.
Additionally, the nanopore can easily be crammed together (think millions and millions of the structure), creating a larger battery about the size of a postage stamp. The researchers believe the battery is able to achieve such a feat because of the way it is designed, each one shaped like the others. Not to mention the fact that nanopores are extremely small. Space inside the structure's holes is so small that when all of them are added together, they would take up no more than a single grain of sand.
The entire structure's design features nanobattery components made up of a cathode, an anode, and a liquid electrolyte set within the nanopore of an anodic aluminum oxide or the ceramic material.
Every nanoelectrode is then fitted with an inner nanotube created with vanadium pentoxide and an outer nanotube of ruthenium. The ruthenium collects the current while the vanadium pentoxide stores it. When put together, the nanotubes form a full nanopore cell separated by electrolyte, with pristine vanadium pentoxide acting as the cathode and vanadium pentoxide mixed with lithium serving as the anode.
After successfully demonstrating the concept of the nanopore, the researchers have also said that they have identified certain improvements they can introduce that would make the next iteration of the structure 10 times more powerful. They've also realized ways to manufacture nanopores in large batches so the battery can be produced for commercial purposes.
Published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, the study was led by Chanyuan Liu, Ph.D., a materials science and engineering student, collaborating with Gary Rubloff, Maryland NanoCenter director and a professor at the Institute of Systems Research and the Materials Science and Engineering Department, and Sang Bok Lee, also a professor at the Materials Science and Engineering Department and the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department. Other Ph.D. students involved in the effort include Elanor Gillette, Keith Gregorczyk, Xinyi Chen, Marshall Schroeder, Alexander Pearse, and Alexander Kozen.
