Washington: A team of researchers in the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies (CINT) has created the tiniest battery in the world. The rechargeable, lithium-based battery is developed by a team led by researcher Jianyu Huang. The discovery has paved way for the development of smaller and more efficient batteries in future.The battery comprises of a three millimeters long lithium cobalt cathode, a single tin oxide nanowire anode and an ionic liquid electrolyte. The anode, which measures 10 nanometers in length and 100 nanometers in diameter, is one seven-thousandth the thickness of a human hair.A lithium-ion battery with nanowire-based materials greatly increases the power and energy density when compared to bulk electrodes. Researchers developed this battery in order to better understand the mechanism in which it works and formed the battery inside a transmission electron microscope (TEM) that would enable them to study the charging and discharging of the battery in real time and at atomic scale resolution.The researchers found that while charging, the tin oxide nanowire rod almost doubles in length. This is greater than the diameter increase and could result in avoiding short circuits that often reduce battery life.
Huang said, "Manufacturers should take account of this elongation in their battery design. These observations prove that nanowires can sustain large stress (>10 GPa) induced by lithiation without breaking, indicating that nanowires are very good candidates for battery electrodes."Although the experiments were carried out using tin oxide nanowires, Huang informed it could be extended to other material systems as well. The work of the team has been reported in the latest issue of the journal Science.
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