Zoomi Life

Physicists at the University of Miami and Tokyo have together invented a new type of battery, featured in the journal Nature.  The batteries are “spun” fibers about the thickness of a hair and utilize nanotechnology elements to give them incredible energy density.

Using nanomagnets inside magnetic tunnel junctions, external magnetic forces can cause huge amounts of energy to be stored inside these tunnels.  Think of it as a wind-up toy being cranked to coil the spring, as the external magnet energizes the battery cell.  It’s almost exactly that, but on a much tighter scale–it’s solid-state, not chemistry.

When a load is placed on the system, this magnetic energy is re-released as electricity.  “We had anticipated the effect,” says lead inventor Stuart Barnes, “but the device produced a voltage over 100 times too big and for tens of minutes, rather than for milliseconds as we had expected.”

This means an enormous amount of energy density is possible with batteries made of groups of these tubes.  Barnes believes that, once perfected, a battery the diameter of a human hair could provide the energy to move an electric car for miles.

The new technology has implications for more than just batteries.  It could make cell phones smaller, electric motors smaller, and even reduce the number of magnets needed to close your refrigerator door.  It’s definitely remarkable stuff, though seeing it in market applications is obviously years down the road.

Source: EurekAlert