Sulfur/Li-ion battery, 5 X power density!:

http://phys.org/news/2013-01-yolk-shell-world-record-battery.html

That puts the energy storage up there within shouting distance of gasoline! Everything electronic could benefit, cell phones, laptops, tablets, camera's, besides electric auto's.

Originally posted by sonhouse
http://phys.org/news/2013-01-yolk-shell-world-record-battery.html

That puts the energy storage up there within shouting distance of gasoline! Everything electronic could benefit, cell phones, laptops, tablets, camera's, besides electric auto's.

What it says in the link sounds very promising! It sounds like the specific energy (which the amount of maximum energy stored per unit mass and not to be confused with energy density) of this new battery, if fully developed, would be much higher than that for the the highest specific energies for commercially available lithium batteries today but I find it hard to tease out from the link even a approximation of how much more specific energy we are talking about here.

It says:

“.... The sulfur cathode stored up to five times more energy per sulfur weight than today's commercial materials....” but that is just for the Cathode.

It also says:

“...Cui's group has demonstrated a succession of increasingly capable anodes that use silicon rather than carbon because it can store up to 10 times more charge per weight. ...” but that is just for the anode.

So, I guess, putting these two fragments of info together and assuming that both the sulfur cathode and the silicon anode will be combined into the same battery, we could be talking about overall very roughly ~7 times more specific energy?

Originally posted by sonhouse
http://phys.org/news/2013-01-yolk-shell-world-record-battery.html

That puts the energy storage up there within shouting distance of gasoline! Everything electronic could benefit, cell phones, laptops, tablets, camera's, besides electric auto's.

All sorts of wonderful battery breakthroughs have been made over the past 10 years, but I can't think of a single one that has made it to market. Can you?

Improvements in marketable battery technology are painfully incremental. Gains in the battery life of laptops and such seem to be more due to reduced power consumption than increased power availability.

Originally posted by Soothfast
All sorts of wonderful battery breakthroughs have been made over the past 10 years, but I can't think of a single one that has made it to market. Can you?

Improvements in marketable battery technology are painfully incremental. Gains in the battery life of laptops and such seem to be more due to reduced power consumption than increased power availability.

That's generally true I think.

But what about gains in electric cars? -Here a much higher specific energy battery could make a big difference because the main limiting factor for gains in electric cars are, even with the best current lithium batteries, not so much a high power consumption, which is usually attempted to be designed to be no higher than absolutely necessary, but rather more to do with their relatively pathetically small specific energy of their energy storage which means they typically have to be recharged roughly about ~100 times more often than a petrol car needs to be refueled (and, worse, it can take ages to recharge the battery each time although that does not necessarily correspond to the specific energy).

Originally posted by humy
That's generally true I think.

But what about gains in electric cars? -Here a much higher specific energy battery could make a big difference because the main limiting factor for gains in electric cars are, even with the best current lithium batteries, not so much a high power consumption, which is usually attempted to be designed to be no higher than absolu ...[text shortened]... ge the battery each time although that does not necessarily correspond to the specific energy).

They did say they got 1000 charge-discharge cycles with a loss of less than 30% so that is just what is needed for auto's.

Originally posted by sonhouse
They did say they got 1000 charge-discharge cycles with a loss of less than 30% so that is just what is needed for auto's.

I say just develop your bagdad battery further. You will be able to power a car that makes the tesla roadster look wimpy with it.

Originally posted by sonhouse
http://phys.org/news/2013-01-yolk-shell-world-record-battery.html

That puts the energy storage up there within shouting distance of gasoline! Everything electronic could benefit, cell phones, laptops, tablets, camera's, besides electric auto's.

I want one for my golf trolley, I'll buy a skate board and never have to hire a buggy again!!!!

Originally posted by OdBod
I want one for my golf trolley, I'll buy a skate board and never have to hire a buggy again!!!!

Yes, skateboards are SUCH a joy in the rain....