A group of engineers at the University Of Texas has invented a new Battery made of an all-solid core, which makes this battery charge faster than traditional ones and has a much longer lifetime. The invented battery could be used in phones, electric cars and other devices that work electrically. Their work was published in Energy Environ under the title ''Alternative strategy for a safe rechargeable battery.''
94-year-old inventor
John Goodenough, a 94-year-old professor in the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin has led a team of engineers to invent the new all-solid battery.
He is also the co-inventor of the lithium_ion battery.
The invention has three times more energy storage, so instead of charging a phone to work for three hours, this invention will make the phone work for nine hours. In addition, the new invention could be charged more times than the traditional battery without losing its capacity and it is also recharged in much less time. The researchers believe that their invention will solve many problems and in the near future, it will be the used in almost any electrical device.
Old battery vs. new battery
Batteries have two sides, the positive (cathode) side, and the negative (anode) side and the main idea behind any battery is to force electrons to move from the positive side to the negative side, like water moving from a filled container to an emptier one.
Apart from electrons, ions (unstable atoms) also move from cathode to anode but unlike electrons which pass through an outside source (like a lamp), ions travel through a liquid substance between the cathode and the anode. The problem with this liquid is that it could cause explosions in the battery and it also has a short lifetime.
Professor Goodenough was aware of the disadvantages of the liquid inside the battery, so he invented a battery with a solid core. The new all-solid battery is risk-free, it does not allow explosions, and its lifetime is much longer. For long time engineers were not able to find a suitable solid material that could be built in a battery, but professor Goodenough and his team have finally invented the material.
