Electric cars that recharge in seconds and travel hundreds of miles without passing through the plug. Solar and wind systems that offer the right amount of power at any time. Electronics with energy independence of weeks.
The batteries, some kind of battery, could fulfill this wish in the near future. Believe so many international research teams who base their work on various systems, such as nanotechnology.
In search of the ideal battery
The renewable energy and electric vehicles have a common weakness: the lack of reliable energy storage systems, high-capacity and cheap. Solar technologies or wind in theory could cover all energy needs of humanity, but they are very irregular.
Sometimes generate so much energy that can not be exploited, while others produce nothing because there is no wind or sun. For its popularity would take extra energy conservation in large quantities and be used at the time and time. Today this is not possible.
Electric vehicles have a similar problem. Its batteries can not compete on price or output with conventional fuel engines, but especially for their autonomy and recharge time, these cars need to hook up several hours to travel short distances before running out of energy.
The batteries could be the solution. Invented almost three centuries ago, now one of its most common uses is as capacitors in electronic devices. While the battery or batteries rely on chemical reactions to produce electricity, the batteries keep the electrons as a physical burden and are therefore capable of rapid flows of energy.
One drawback slows its generalization: the amount of electricity that can be stored in relation to its weight is small. To achieve the same amount of electricity from a battery of 400 kilos you need a battery of eight tons. Too much weight for an electric car.
However, this limitation could be overcome in the coming years, thus becoming the desired energy storage medium. They believe at least several research teams from universities and companies around the world, working in various models.
Accumulators “nano”
One possible pathway that appears to raise more expectations is the use of nano-materials (the size of a billionth of a meter). In this race there are several competitors. Companies including Intel, aware that it can not be confined to producing its famous microchips.
Its R & D lab is working on several systems that can be the future of their electricity sector as above without wires or batteries. In one such project director, Tom Aldridge Recognizes that it is premature to talk about results, but is confident that replacing current batteries and lithium batteries offer many more benefits, both for electronic devices and electric vehicles.
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, the team Doug Chrisey has created a composite, a new ceramic material with the aim of becoming a tank smaller, lighter and efficient than current batteries. The material is structured in multiple layers and nano makers hope it can serve multiple applications from the storage of renewable energy to the base of electronics.
Gary Rubloff, Director of the Nano Center at the University of Maryland (USA), and his collaborator, Professor Sang Bok Lee have developed a method based on millions of nanostructures, which improves the efficiency of these storage devices. Rubloff and Lee point out that working for these batteries is the basis for future ultra-thin solar panels and low cost.
Carbon and other molecules have shown an incredible ability to store energy and hydrogen at the nanoscale. Well aware of the chemical engineer Paula Hammond and mechanical engineer Yang Shao-Horn, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), U.S. These researchers have created ultrathin films based on carbon nanotubes that could lead to “super batteries” and accumulators.
Another researcher at MIT, Joel Schindall Works on improving the ultra-accumulators. These devices were developed in the 60's and are used in some electronics, but its performance is still very limited.
Some experts suggest an interesting future. With the advances necessary, could get very fast load times, less pollution by reducing toxic chemical materials and a long useful life, and greater security as they are heated less.
Other Pioneering research
Japan is also a pioneer in the development of such systems. The researcher Michio Okamura works from the last 90 years in technology, ECASS, which has improved the performance of existing batteries.
The Honda company tested the system in their vehicles and provided the basis for a new battery, created by the multinational JEOL, specialized scientific equipment.
The aforementioned Honda and Toyota are also working on the accumulator cell known as polymer electrolyte membrane (PEMFC). Their leaders have created several prototypes of vehicles powered by this system, but its high price drives them away from potential commercialization.