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View Full Version : Nanowire Li-ion battery. Is there a sense?


Stanley514
Jan20-11, 09:15 PM
Recently, there is a new type of battery is developing that has silicon anode which is able to absorb 8 times more Li-ions than graphite anode.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanowire_battery
But if I no make mistake the main limitation of Li-ion battery is its cathode, not anode.
Usual graphite anode has specific capacity 372 mA·h/g while typical cathode 100-180mA·h/g. So there seem to be no sence to increase capacity of anode unless we have much more capacitive cathode.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium-ion_battery

Borek
Jan21-11, 06:54 AM
If you can make 8 times lighter anode final mass of the battery will be still lower, even if the cathode has been not changed.

Stanley514
Jan21-11, 10:59 AM
If you can make 8 times lighter anode final mass of the battery will be still lower, even if the cathode has been not changed.

Even if yes,maybe just a few persents.Could you provide some approximate calculations?
For exampe, if in usual Li-ion battery anode takes 1/4 of space,cathode 2/4 and electrolyte 1/4,then making anode 8 times smaller saves us only 1/5 of total space.
Probably,it will not be worth of new expensve technologies to produce it.
Maybe, for some space applications only.

Also I whish to know if there is some electron exchange processes which are not associated
with actual chemical changes.I know there exist some pseudocapacitors but there is still some chemical processes occur what limits the cycle life.What about triboelectric effect when electrons transfer from one material to another?Could it be used as energy storage?