Soon you’ll see gadgets like hearing aids, sensors, cellphones, laptop computers and even electric cars, running on a new portable electrochemical battery that is based on silicon as a fuel that regress to its original sand. Developed by Professor Yair Ein-Eli of the Technion’s materials engineering department at Haifa’s Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, the non-rechargeable silicone battery - air offers thousands of hours of power without a break. The US patent pending battery can be inserted into a device to provide immediate power.
Think of an electric car battery made from silicon that will turn into sand that would be recycled into silicon and then into power again. This would take about 10 years more and be revolutionary. It could be used in any portable electronic device or be integrated with solar or wind power as well as electric energy.
Says Prof. Ein-Eli.
He further adds that the battery ranging from one square centimeter to several square centimeters utilizes abundant oxygen as cathode. The primary component i.e. silicon is also an abundantly available, stable, lightweight and high-energy element. It utilizes an ionic liquid developed in Japan that does not evaporate easily.
The US-Israel Binational Science Foundation endowed a grant for the research.
Image Credit: Technion
Via: IsraelINN
