Long live the battery
 |
| Stuart Licht hoping to get more from his batteries |
Chemist Stuart
Licht and colleagues at the Technion-Israel Institute of
Technology in Haifa, Israel have devised a new type of battery that
lasts 50% longer than everyday typical batteries. The "super-iron" batteries
could keep the beat going longer in personal stereos the world over and
could also find use in everything from laptop computers to medical implants
by way of electric cars.
Standard alkaline batteries used in flashlights have a zinc anode and a
manganese oxide cathode but die when the cathode is "used up", the other
components last longer but the battery is "cathode" limited. Licht and his
colleagues figured that replacing the manganese oxide, which transfers two
electrons per metal atom, with a material that carries three electrons, in
the
form of ferrate (FeO4) the problem of cathode decay could be
greatly reduced. Until now, ferrate has been considered too unstable for
many applications but the team has found that if it is kept pure, as the
potassium or barium ferrate salt it lasts far longer than magnesium oxide.
An additional benefit is that they are non-toxic.
The team has already made a "AAA" sized version of the battery, so get
ready to take extra music on that journey.
Science, 1999, 285, 1039 [full paper available online]
