http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/23516/
Longer-Running Electric-Car Batteries
Silicon-nanotube electrodes may enable lithium-ion batteries to store
10 times more charge.
By Katherine Bourzac
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
In an advance that could help electric vehicles run longer between
charges, researchers have shown that silicon nanotube electrodes can
store 10 times more charge than the conventional graphite electrodes
used in lithium-ion batteries.
Silicon storage: This image of a bundle of silicon nanotubes was made
using a scanning-electron microscope.
Credit: ACS/Nano Letters
Researchers at Stanford University and Hanyang University in Ansan,
Korea, are developing the nanotube electrodes in collaboration with LG
Chem, a Korean company that makes lithium-ion batteries, including
those used in the Chevy Volt. When such a battery is charged, lithium
ions move from the cathode to the anode. The new battery electrodes,
described online in the journal Nano Letters, are anodes and can store
much more energy than conventional graphite electrodes because they
absorb much more lithium when the battery is charged.
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