Hundreds of thousands of charging cycles without loss of efficiency

Batteries that never need to be replaced, researchers at the University of California, Irvine designed. Specifically, it involves a lithium-ion battery with nanowires that currently undergoes around 200,000 charging cycles without losing efficiency thanks to a special coating.

Plexiglass type gel

Nanowires are extremely conductive and offer a good way to transfer and store electrons. But at the same time, they are also particularly delicate and do not withstand the process of constant charging and discharging very well. In previous experiments, the nanowires stretched and became brittle after some time. At UCI, the nanowires made of gold were previously coated with manganese dioxide and then embedded in a Plexiglas-like gel - with great success.

"The coated electrode keeps its shape much better, which makes it a more reliable solution," enthuses PhD student Mya Le Thai. "This research shows that a nanowire-based battery electrode can be durable and we can make such batteries a reality."

No loss of power

"Mya was playing around and she coated this whole thing with a very thin layer of gel and started charging and discharging the battery," co-author Reginald Penner says. "In the process, she found that she could do hundreds of thousands of charge cycles with no loss of power, just by using this gel."

The last batteries with nanowires inside broke after only 5,000 to 7,000 charging cycles. The researchers think that the gel makes the metal oxide in the battery soft and pliable, ensuring flexibility that prevents it from becoming brittle.

(press release)