New Battery Tech That could let you talk for days

A new technology using silicon nanowires would increase the capacity of rechargeable lithium-ion battery to store charge up to a factor of 10, according to research conducted at Stanford University.

The technology could significantly extend the operating time of battery-powered devices like digital cameras, iPods, mobile phones and notebook computers from a minimum four hours to a full day or an entire work week.

This achievement is the upward trend for lithium-ion batteries, but a revolutionary one, according to Yi Cui, assistant professor of Materials Science and Engineering and lead researcher.

"If the allegations are true, this could be a breakthrough technology," said Roger Kay, president, Endpoint Technologies Associates.
Increased capacity

Standard lithium-ion batteries use graphite anodes that are able to hold only a limited amount of charged particles of lithium. The limited capacity of graphite anodes is essentially responsible for the relatively short life burden of lithium-ion battery. The replacement of graphite anodes with silicon nanowires to increase charge capacity of the storage battery, the Stanford researchers found.

"Silicon is an attractive anode material for lithium batteries because it has little chance of discharge and the highest known theoretical charge capacity," the report says.

However, the researchers needed to solve a longstanding problem surrounding the use of silicon in lithium-ion batteries. The repeated import and export of lithium ion causes tiny silicon wires to degrade and eventually be dissolved, which leads to poor battery performance Click here to learn how the AT & T Application Management can help you focus on the development and the profitability of your business. long term.

"Although [the ability of silicon] is more than 10 times higher than existing graphite anodes and much larger than various nitride and oxide materials, silicon anodes have limited applications Click here to learn how the AT & T Application Manager you may help to focus on growth and profitability of your business. because changes in the volume of silicon by 400 percent in import and export of lithium, resulting in pulverization and capacity fading, "the report explains.
The Solution Steel

Cui, together with colleagues of the researchers, solved the problem by growing silicon nanowires directly on a substrate of stainless steel, which served as current collector, the report says. The nanowires were able to inflate up to four times their normal size - one millimeter thickness of a piece of paper - which absorbed lithium is not any breakage.

The anodes were then able to achieve the maximum theoretical charge capacity of silicon for the first cycle of charge and remained close to 75 percent of maximum during the numerous charge and discharge cycles, according to researchers.

The new lithium-ion batteries could be available within several years.

"This could make a big difference in many possible applications, if the benefits can be carried all the way through the process at a reasonable cost," Kay told TechNewsWorld.

Alcatel Kicks Off Project to Make Telecom Nets 1,000 Times Greener

Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs launched a Green touch, a project aimed at making communication networks 1,000 times more energy-efficient.

Founding members of the project include service providers such as AT &T; research laboratories such as MIT Research Lab for electronics and Bell Labs? And the government and nonprofit research institutions such as the French National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control.

The project hopes to deliver a network architecture reference to prove the essential elements required for it until 2015.

Reach Out and Green Something
Green Touch bases 1000 times better energy efficiency research Bell Labs. The laboratory analyzed the information and communication technology (ICT) networks, technologies and architecture.

Bell Labs then applied the Shannon-Hartley theorem of its findings. Roughly speaking, the theorem describes the maximum bandwidth available for transmission by adding the value of the signal encoding and the value of noise or interference.

Founding members of the Project Green Touch from various countries. Service provider members include AT & T, the China Mobile, by Portugal Telecom, Swisscom, Switzerland provider, and global telecommunications giant Telefonica. Members of the academic research laboratory is the MIT Research Laboratory of Electronics, Wireless Stanford University in Systems Laboratory and the University of Melbourne Institute for broadband-enabled society.

Government and nonprofit research institution shall be the CEA-LETI Applied Research Institute of Microelectronics and the French National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control (INRIA). Industrial members of the laboratory, except for Bell Labs is the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology and Freescale Semiconductor.

The project has also received expressions of support from the United States Energy Secretary Steven Chu and the British, French, South Korea and Portugal.

The Green Touch Vision
By 2015, the Green Touch Project aims to deliver the architecture, standards and roadmap to reduce the energy consumption of communication networks at the rate of 1,000 per user from current levels. It also plans to demonstrate key elements of it.

"It's a really aggressive program," Gee Rittenhouse, head of research at Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) Bell Laboratories, told the E-Commerce Times. "We have five years to demonstrate these technologies."

Bell Labs is open for membership of the project Green Touch. Why not get other carriers, governments and organizations on board before the announcement of the project? "It takes a lot of time to plan a project of this size, and much time wasted on this," Rittenhouse explained. "With something that is this broad and complex, rather than trying to work with all elements that will take forever, would be representation from each of the constituencies to our members and, with a smaller group, I can build something that can prove.

It expects membership to grow over time.

We are the green world
The Green Touch project should not have trouble getting buy-in, Rob Enderle, principal analyst at Enderle Group, told the E-Commerce times. "Governments want this trend to a large extent, I would expect that they will have no problem getting on board," he stressed. "It may come to be simply a problem of keeping people who must approve announcements to a manageable level."