Two years back, a research had begun regarding a new type of air-fueled battery. Fresh results have surfaced recently regarding this air-fueled battery that it is capable of providing 10 times the power storage that the current battery types provide. This is a revolutionary experiment that can give a whole new perspective to the batteries.

Credit: news.cnet

Regarding these results, a news release has been made this Monday by Professor Peter Bruce, of the University of St Andrews’ chemistry department. According to him, so far the results have been very positive and heartening, even more than what they expected.

How is it going to work? What is it like? Currently, there is lithium cobalt oxide electrode present in the usual lithium batteries. Researchers are trying to replace the lithium cobalt oxide electrode with a porous carbon electrode. It benefits by allowing lithium ions and electrons in the cell to react instead with oxygen in the ambient air.

This research has been financed by the U.K.’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. This specific research project has received about 1.6 million British pounds ($2.4 million) from the EPSRC.

This battery is called STAIR (St. Andrews Air) cell. As it has been established that STAIR can store ten times more power than current batteries, it is obvious that this is going to enhance the portability of portable appliances such as mobile phones, notebooks, media players, etc. researchers are trying to go to a further level where these batteries would be able to establish a consistent power output from natural sources like solar energy or wind.

A nice thing about the porous carbon electrode is that it is much cheaper than the existing lithium cobalt oxide electrode, thus STAIR cells will be cheaper, according to researchers. Professor Bruce said, “The key is to use oxygen in the air as a reagent, rather than carry the necessary chemicals around inside the battery.”

Source: news.cnet

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.