Friday, January 28, 2011

Rebuild Laptop Battery

There was a time when your laptop was a beast that lasted for days devoid of charging. As time passed, the beast grew older, and now it can barely remain awake for an hour. Luckily you could bring the beast back to life by discovering out the best way to fix laptop battery.


At this point you could have 3 options:


If you are seeking to update a bathtub or an region that’s covered in tile that’s outdated or just not the proper color for what you need within the room, then you may possibly would like to think about Tile Paint more than a total re-tile.


#1 You can take your laptop back to the supplier and let them repair it.


The technologies about this paint has enhanced considerably in the past handful of years and also the high quality and ease of applying it can offer the DIY-er with an excellent solution to refresh a tiled backsplash or tiled area. There would not be a will need to absolutely tear out the old tile, rebuild the backing and then apply a whole new set of tile.


Mainly from the labor, this approach is often incredibly pricey and time consuming. With Tile Paint, all you need to do is ascertain the amount of surface area that you will need to cover, then obtain the suitable quantity plus the correct color.


The key to applying this may be the preparation process. Removing as substantially from the soap scum and grime as doable will make sure your paint application will adhere properly.


At very first this could possibly seem to be the superior option. It is fairly a lot hassle free, and also you don’t have to get your hands dirty. The difficulty is that you in all probability want your laptop now, you can’t afford to wait for 6 weeks. The repair expenses are highly-priced too, and in time the battery such as dell 1691P battery, dell 75UYF battery, dell 5081P battery, Dell 1K500 battery, Dell Inspiron 3700 battery, Dell Precision M40 battery, Dell Precision M50 battery, dell Inspiron 700m battery, dell Inspiron 710m battery, dell F5136 battery, dell 312-0306 battery, dell 312-0305 battery, dell D5561 battery and dell G5345 battery will die again anyways.


#2 You can get a replacement battery and install it yourself.


This is a cheaper, despite the fact that nonetheless not a best remedy to your battery problems. A laptop replacement battery will expense you anything from 50 to over a hundred dollars.


In addition, scrubbing lightly with steel wool or the suggested abrasive material is needed so as to present a surface onto which the paint will adhere. A different recommendation for painting tile is that if surface will get wet all of the time, then don’t bother even painting it. You’ll most most likely be scraping out tile paint chips within a matter of weeks. For bathtub or shower floor jobs, consult a professional.

New Longest Laptop Battery

When’s the last time you bought a brand new laptop? If you have recently bought 1 on-line you in all probability have noticed that you can tailor your laptop particularly to your needs. That’s a fairly big chunk of change just for some hours of battery life.


You know you can’t fix a round plug into a square hole; similarly, you can not fit any laptop battery into any computer. Laptop batteries are made for a precise purpose and for particular computer models only. Now, if you are looking to buy a replacement laptop battery such as dell 1691P battery, dell 75UYF battery, dell 5081P battery, Dell 1K500 battery, Dell Inspiron 3700 battery, Dell Precision M40 battery, Dell Precision M50 battery, dell Inspiron 700m battery, dell Inspiron 710m battery, dell F5136 battery, dell 312-0306 battery, dell 312-0305 battery, dell D5561 battery and dell G5345 battery, there are actually some issues you could possibly want to know and consider, prior to truly purchasing it.


If you are thinking about upgrading the battery life of one’s laptop but do not want the manufacturer to install a giant, bulky, uncomfortable laptop battery it is possible to use an external laptop battery and get nearly double the quantity of energy for half the cost. Read an external laptop battery review to decide on which one may well be the longest lasting and then go using the 1 you can afford.


There is no dearth of them. With such large quantity of options, it is quite quick to obtain confused, as well as be led, to make the incorrect decision. To stay away from this problem, you require to know some thing about your laptop – The make of your laptop and its model. You also can look inside the laptop battery’s compartment for the model quantity along with other helpful information. {In addition to this information, you may possibly also uncover the laptop battery’s component number that might be be} located on the battery casing itself. |}


There are twenty {four|4} hours in a day. likely spend about eight of those hours sleeping and you most likely invest about eight of those hours working on your laptop if you are a busy body.|} lots of laptop batteries can provide you with eight hours of battery life?|} lots of of them.|} If they do say they can you {better expect that they’re bulky pieces of machinery that are not nice to look at and will not fit nicely in your lap.|}


Things to {look|appear} for


What would you like your battery to do? Fail you the {first|initial|1st|very first} time you use it? I guess not. So, make a note of this parameter {that is|that’s|which is} important, {as well|also|too|at the same time} as others, like the {technology|technologies} {that is|that’s|which is} {used|utilized|employed|utilised|applied|made use of} {in the|within the|inside the} battery – it {should|ought to|need to|really should|must|will need to} be compatible {with the|using the} {technology|technologies} {used|utilized|employed|utilised|applied|made use of} {in your|inside your|within your} computer. isn’t just a joke – it requires plenty of time and effort.|} Finally, {choose|select|pick|decide on|opt for} the battery that has the longest life. might be the greatest replacement laptop battery to choose.|}

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Lithium-Ion Batteries Get Green Kudos

In a week where many mainstream media outlets are claiming electric cars are prohibitively more expensive to own than gasoline counterparts, a team of Swiss researchers have released conclusive data showing that the environmental impact of the electric car is much less than most gas cars.


As any EV advocate will tell you, electric vehicles are extremely green when fuelled from renewable energy such as solar or wind power. In fact, ignoring any carbon impact of manufacture, you can argue such electric cars can be zero emissions.


Electric cars charged from non-clean power sources, such as gas, oil and coal are less polluting than gasoline cars, but for those who remain unconvinced of the benefits of the electric car there is a claimed sinful side to the EV.


Batteries.


If some of the most vocal anti-EV spokespersons are to be believed, mining the minerals and metals used in electric car batteries are much more damaging to the planet than any gasoline car.


Thankfully, it turns out they are wrong. Making an electric car really doesn’t take up as many of the earth’s resources as previously thought.


A team of researchers at the Swiss-based EMPA institute, which focuses on material sciences and technology development, have concluded that electric vehicle lithium-ion batteries such as dell Latitude CPi battery, dell Inspiron 8200 battery, dell Inspiron 8000 battery, dell Inspiron 8100 battery, dell Inspiron 4000 battery, dell Inspiron 4100 battery, dell Inspiron 2500 battery, dell Latitude CPX battery, dell Latitude C600 battery, dell Latitude C610 battery, dell Latitude C640 battery, dell 1691P battery and dell 75UYF battery are at worse, a moderate environmental burden.


And when comparing the environmental impact of an EV to a gasoline car, from raw materials through production and use to recycling at end of life, EVs used less natural resources.


Comparing electric cars similar in size and performance to the 2010 VW Golf, the researchers discovered that only 15% of the total environmental impact of building the car could be attributed to the battery pack. Of that, only 2.3% came from mining and processing raw lithium.


Other materials used in lithium-ion batteries such as copper and aluminium, attributed 7.5% of the environmental burden.


But don’t think for one second that the researchers were giving EV batteries an easy time.


Although many electric car battery packs could theoretically be reused without reprocessing in power back-up applications, the researchers assumed a battery pack would only be fit for reprocessing on removal from an EV.


The paper also outlines that running an electric car with lithium-ion batteries for 100,000 miles results in three times more pollution from the energy used to fuel it, if a mixture of fuel sources such as nuclear, coal-fired and renewable similar to those found in Europe are used.


Use power exclusively from coal-fired stations, and the impact of an EV worsens by over 13%.


Use purely renewable energy sources such as hydroelectric, and the environmental impact of an EV is reduced by over 40%.


Taking into account the standard electricity generation mix in Europe the researchers concluded that to be more environmentally friendly than an EV a gasoline car would need to have a fuel efficiency of more than 59 miles per U.S. gallon.


The message from Switzerland is clear. Even when fuelled by dirty sources, EVs have less environmental impact than their gasoline counterparts.


Charge from a renewable source, and gasoline cars simply cannot compete.

New Battery Is Most Powerful Ever

The electric motor is a great invention, but it's entirely limited by the power that the battery can feed to it, and that power is limited by the amount of energy the battery can store.


Battery technology is in constant development behind the scenes, though, and the latest to emerge in research at Washington State University promises to be the most powerful non-nuclear energy storage ever.


We're used to Nickel-metal hydride (Ni-MH), Lithium-Nickel (Li-Ni) batteries, and Lithium-ion (Li-Ion), as you'd find in cars such as the 2011 Nissan Leaf and 2011 Chevrolet Volt.


Now meet the Xenon difluoride (XeF2) battery such as dell Latitude CPi battery, dell Inspiron 8200 battery, dell Inspiron 8000 battery, dell Inspiron 8100 battery, dell Inspiron 4000 battery, dell Inspiron 4100 battery, dell Inspiron 2500 battery, dell Latitude CPX battery, dell Latitude C600 battery, dell Latitude C610 battery, dell Latitude C640 battery, dell 1691P battery and dell 75UYF battery, made of a material normally used to etch silicon conductors. Xenon difluoride molecules are usually kept relatively far apart, but to make the battery they are squeezed together at pressures of one million atmospheres--similar to those you'd find half way to the Earth's core--between two diamond anvils.


Under such massive pressures the molecules go from their normal state to a two-dimensional semiconductor, but then begin to form three-dimentional metallic network structures. This forces the mechanical energy of the compression process to be stored as chemical energy, just like you'd find in a regular battery.


Potential applications for the new technology are huge. Their potential use includes superconductors, super-oxidising materials to break down chemical and biological agents, and new fuels.


Most exciting for us is the potential as an energy storage device. Imagine the benefits for electric vehicles - such high energy and storage means much smaller batteries and much lower weight for the same power, or much greater power and storage as you increase the number of batteries.


They could be fit easily into redesigned chassis with more space devoted to passengers or moved around to alter weight distribution to the benefit of handling. Perhaps individual wheel motors could have their own battery sets that could be removed and replaced with ease.


Of course we're speculating at this stage and the technology is in it's infancy - but new battery technology is always exciting news for the electric vehicle industry.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Buffett Goes Long Battery

As we all know, he loves making money. And he's good at it.


He also loves the cleantech market for all the ophelimity it brings.


It's no secret clean energy is big business. I've heard more than once that Buffett's MidAmerican Energy Holdings generates more wind power than any other regulated utility. But it's hard to tell, since megawatts (and profits) are added every day.


So, it shouldn't be big news — or surprising news — that The Oracle is interested in other segments of alternative energy. That's why I was somewhat shocked to see Buffett in the headlines of major news outlets this week as they touted his "new" interest in batteries.


I've been telling you the battery market — and energy storage in general — is heating up in a big way. And I've known about Buffett's "new" interest in batteries since 2008.


A Buffett Battery Buffet


In fact, it was last September when MidAmerican took a 10% stake in BYD (Build Your Dreams), a Chinese dell laptop battery such as dell Inspiron E1705 battery, dell Inspiron 6000 battery(dell 6000 battery), dell Inspiron 9300 battery, dell Inspiron 9400 battery, dell 310-6321 battery, dell 310-6322 battery, dell D5318 battery, dell G5260 battery, dell G5266 battery and dell Latitude CPi battery and auto maker. I recommended it to readers of Green Chip International on the December dip.

Up 188% and running. The Dow's down about 30% for the same time frame.


Why? Because BYD is doing what American carmakers failed to: focus on efficiency and hybridization early.


Any company can make a car. Only a few are successfully making hybrids. And you can see where investors think the future will be.


But really, BYD's success has more to do with its battery than anything else. The battery is the keystone of the entire hybrid market, and the Achilles heel of the Chevy Volt, among others. It's easy to form sheet metal into a sedan.

Better with Batteries

The energy market as you know it is on the verge of a vast transformation.


Complete domination of a centralized infrastructure by the big three — coal, oil, gas — is giving way to a distributed network comprised of dozens of new energy sources.


Every available resource is on the table as the days of cheap oil fade farther into the distance.


From the sun's rays up above to the tidal currents and earth's heat down below, the amount of energy we get from non-fossil resources is growing every day.


Finding and harnessing these resources is a trillion-dollar business. China alone has said it'll spend $1.7 trillion doing so in the next decade.


But there's one problem with these new energy technologies that's keeping them from taking over much sooner...


Unlike coal, oil, and gas, these new sources cannot be constantly burned to produce energy. Things like solar, wind, tidal, hydro, and others don't burn, so we can't control when they're available.


Yet they produce more energy than all the world's fossil fuel resources combined...


It's a well-known fact the sun produces more energy in an hour than the world uses in a year. Ample amounts are available from other resources as well.


Just take a look at the amount of energy available versus what we use:


Yearly Energy Fluxes & Human Energy Consumption



Solar

3,850,000 EJ



Wind

2,250 EJ



Biomass

3,000 EJ



Primary energy use (2005)

487 EJ



Electricity (2005)

56.7 EJ



The key is being able to harness and store this energy.


Finding the crown joule


Take those numbers seriously. They're the key to future energy and monetary wealth.


Every year, 3.85 million exajoules of solar energy hit the earth. We only use 487.


Not 487 million or 487,000 — just 487.


Whoever figures out how to store these resources efficiently will simultaneously alleviate global energy woes and create one of the most profitable products of all time.


That's why so much political and investment capital has gone into perfecting solar panels and installing wind turbines. It's why $243 billion was invested in the sector last year.


And it's why “cleantech” has gone from an obscure reference to an international buzzword.


But for all the money spent on these technologies, they've still come up short. Even though they're abundantly available, they still only account for a fraction of our actual energy use.


Solar panel efficiency has increased dramatically over the years. Wind turbines have gotten bigger and bigger, with 5 MW models now being built.


But those advancements still can't overcome the fact that the sun doesn't always shine and the wind doesn't always blow... Meanwhile, people always need energy.


Battery technology is about to change that, while ushering in a new era of energy and wealth


Everything's better with dell laptop battery such as dell Inspiron E1705 battery, dell Inspiron 6000 battery(dell 6000 battery), dell Inspiron 9300 battery, dell Inspiron 9400 battery, dell 310-6321 battery, dell 310-6322 battery, dell D5318 battery, dell G5260 battery, dell G5266 battery and dell Latitude CPi battery


Research funded by the U.S. Air Force has already discovered a type of battery that can power a laptop for 30 years without a single recharge.


This is where the future of energy is headed.


You don't need to burn coal for electricity when you can harness the sun's 3.85 million exajoules of energy and store it for constant use at a later time.


The first such solar plant went online last year in Italy. Using the sun's energy, molten salt is heated to 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The molten salt then boils water to drive a turbine that creates electricity. And since the salt can hold so much heat, the plant can generate electricity long after the sun's gone down.


That's not solar energy; that's solar energy with storage.


In Hawaii, Xtreme Power has used a 10 MW battery and unique computer software to make sure a wind farm can provide a constant supply of energy. The system will store wind energy when it's not needed, and the software will monitor grid demand and release excess electricity when needed.


That's not wind energy; that's wind energy with storage.


And that says nothing of the benefits batteries will have on the automotive sector... Nissan's new LEAF is rated at 99 MPG. Chevy's Volt is rated at 93 MPG.


Those aren't cars; those are cars with energy storage.


And guess what? They could even be charged with solar power stored on other batteries.


This is why the investment world is so excited about rare earth elements. They're crucial for batteries and modern electronics.


It's why investors are going on their second year of a love affair with lithium.


It's why, just last week, Obama visited a GE plant that will produce sodium batteries to power locomotives — yes, battery-powered trains — and why Biden was in Greenfield, Indiana, at the same time touring an Ener1 (NASDAQ: HEV) plant that will make lithium-ion batteries for the Think City electric car.


But these pale in comparison to a battery discovery recently made in a Chinese laboratory...


A new type of battery that could store wind and solar to make coal and oil obsolete, once and for all.


Piper Jaffray expects $600 billion to be spent on this technology in the next 10 years.


So getting in now will ensure you reap constant profits from the battery bull market that will ensue as clean energy and electric vehicles become business as usual.

Monday, January 24, 2011

Better Lithium-Ion Battery

A tiny scaffold-like titanium structure of Nanonets coated with silicon particles could pave the way for faster, lighter and longer-lasting Lithium-ion batteries, according to a team of Boston College chemists who developed the new anode material using nanotechnology.


The web-like Nanonets developed in the lab of Boston College Assistant Professor of Chemistry Dunwei Wang offer a unique structural strength, more surface area and greater conductivity, which produced a charge/re-charge rate five to 10 times greater than typical Lithium-ion anode material, a common component in batteries for a range of consumer electronics, according to findings published in the current online edition of the American Chemical Society journal Nano Letters.


In addition, the Nanonets proved exceptionally durable, showing a negligible drop-off in capacity during charge and re-charge cycles. The researchers observed an average of 0.1% capacity fade per cycle between the 20th and the 100th cycles.


"As researchers pursue the next generation of re-chargeable Lithium-ion battery technology, a premium has been placed on increased power and a greater battery life span," said Wang. "In that context, the Nanonet device makes a giant leap toward those two goals and gives us a superior anode material."


Lithium-ion Laptop Battery such as dell Inspiron E1705 battery, dell Inspiron 6000 battery, dell Inspiron 2500 battery, dell Latitude CPX battery, dell 75UYF battery, dell Latitude D620 battery, dell Latitude D820 battery, dell Inspiron 6400 battery, dell Inspiron E1505 battery, dell GD761 battery, Hp F4809A battery, Compaq Presario NX9010 battery, Hp Pavilion dv2000 battery and Hp pavilion dv6000 battery are commonly used in consumer electronics devices. This type of rechargeable battery allows Lithium ions to move from the anode electrode to the cathode when in use. When charged, the ions move from cathode back to the anode.


The structure and conductivity of the Nanonets improved the ability to insert and extract Lithium ions from the particulate Silicon coating, the team reported. Running at a charge/discharge rate of 8,400 milliamps per gram (mA/g) -- which is approximately five to 10 times greater than similar devices -- the specific capacity of the material was greater than 1,000 milliamps-hour per gram (mA-h/g). Typically, laptop Lithium-ion batteries are rated anywhere between 4,000 and 12,000 mA/h, meaning it would only take between four and 12 grams of the Nanonet anode material to achieve similar capacity.


Wang said the capability to preserve the crystalline Titanium Silicon core during the charge/discharge process was the key to achieving the high performance of the Nanonet anode material. Additional research in his lab will examine the performance of the Nanonet as a cathode material.

Electronic Cigarette Batteries

SBT Co. limited was the first company to introduce the Electronic Cigarette Batteries in April 2003. Later on in the year 2004, Golden Dragon Group Ltd came to control the manufacture of Electronic Cigarette batteries. After it got taken by Ruyan it got renamed officially as SBT RUYAN Technology and Development Co.Ltd. In the year 2004, SBT RUYAN Technology and Development Co. sold the first electronic cigarette in China. SBT Ruyan has become a pioneering agent in the sales and development of Electronic Cigarette Batteries. From a sale of $ 13 million HKD in the year 2004, it has acquired a sales target of $ 286 million HKD in the year 2006.


Features

The electronic cigarette batteries are rechargeable. The batteries such as dell Latitude CPX battery, dell 75UYF battery, dell Latitude D620 battery, dell Latitude D820 battery, dell Inspiron 6400 battery, dell Inspiron E1505 battery, dell GD761 battery, Hp F4809A battery, Compaq Presario NX9010 battery, Hp Pavilion dv2000 battery, Hp pavilion dv6000 battery, Sony PCGA-BP2S battery, Sony VGP-BPS2 battery used in the electronic cigarettes use a lithium ion mix to supply power to the heating element. The life of the electronic cigarette batteries vary depending on factors like the battery type, size of the battery used, how regularly is it used, and the conditions in which it gets used. The battery is the most important and the largest part of an electronic cigarette. The electronic cigarette batteries remain connected to the USB charger.


Larger electronic cigarette models employ a standard size battery that can be replaced when needed. Since smaller size of electronic cigarettes can not hold such large standard sized batteries therefore they use a different kind of battery. In such cases the batteries used are so small that they along with the other electronic components remain incorporated within a single part.


The advancement of technology has made it possible to recharge electronic cigarette batteries just like mobile cell battery technology. These batteries can be charged in a Personal Charging Case which is provided by the electronic cigarette manufacturer itself. These cases are crumple and damage proof boxes that can charge the electronic cigarette batteries at an instance. The e-cigarette batteries when kept inside the Personal Charging Case helps the user to recharge the battery stems within the case, without having to take them out. They can also be stored along with the replacement cartridges. The Personal Charging Case is the same size as that of a normal packet of tobacco cigarettes and is therefore easy to carry.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Sensors Without Batteries

Some technologists believe that in the future, seemingly invisible computers will be embedded everywhere, collecting data about the environment and making it useful to decision makers. One way to achieve this sort of ubiquitous computing is to disperse tiny sensors that measure, for instance, light, temperature, or motion.


But without a persistent power source, such sensors would need their batteries such as Acer BTP-58A1 Battery, Acer BTP-52EW Battery, Acer BTP-550P Battery, Acer BTP-73E1 Battery, Acer TravelMate 290 Battery, Acer Aspire 1680 Battery, Acer LCBTP03003 Battery, Acer Aspire 1300 Battery, Acer BTP-APJ1 Battery, Acer BTP-AQJ1 Battery, Acer BTP-ARJ1 Battery and Acer BATCL32 battery replaced every few months. In other words, ubiquitous sensors could also mean "ubiquitous dead batteries," says Josh Smith, a researcher at Intel Research in Seattle.


Smith and his team are addressing this problem not by working on longer-lasting batteries but by trying to eliminate the need for batteries altogether. Instead, their prototype devices employ the same power-scavenging technique used by battery-free radio frequency identification (RFID) tags.


The concept of throwing out the sensor battery is not new. Researchers have proposed capturing energy from environmental vibrations or ambient light to power a sensor (see "Free Electricity from Nano Generators"). But it is unclear whether technology that captures ambient energy can be inexpensively integrated into a sensing device.


By contrast, the technology used in RFID tags, which transmit a few bits of information when scanned by an RFID reader, is cheap enough to integrate into sensors and be mass produced; they're already widely used to track livestock and cargo, as well as cars passing through "easy pass" lanes on highways.


Smith explains that Intel's sensor devices use off-the-shelf components: an antenna to send and receive data and collect energy from a reader, and a sensor-containing microcontroller -- a tiny computer that requires only a couple hundred microwatts of power to collect and process data.


The antenna harvests this power directly from the radio waves emitted by an RFID reader. When a tag comes within range of a reader, the reader's radio signal passes through the antenna, generating a voltage that activates the tag. The tag is then able to send information to the reader through a process called backscattering, in which the antenna essentially reflects a data-encoded variation of the received radio signal.


The microcontroller that Smith's team added to the RFID antenna includes a 16-bit microprocessor, 8 kilobytes of flash storage, and 256 bytes of random-access memory.


One of the microcontroller's main jobs is to ensure that information is transmitted to the reader error-free, which requires more computation than a conventional RFID tag can handle. In a typical tag, the error-checking information is precomputed and stored on the chip; but for a sensor, Smith says, this information needs to be computed in real-time as data is gathered.


Just like RFID tags, the battery-free sensors turn on only when they encounter a reader. As long as the RFID reader is within range of the device, Smith says, it can collect data and send it to the reader.


Battery-free sensors could be useful in many areas, including medicine, says Zeke Mejia, chief technology officer of St. Paul-based Digital Angel, an RFID tag maker. They could "check the status and certain conditions in the body" at any moment, Mejia says, from glucose levels in people with diabetes to the pH of blood and other body fluids.


In their current form, Intel's sensors need to be within about a meter of a reader to be activated. That's closer than would be ideal for some applications, such as measuring the temperature of foods packed in large crates or vibrations in thick walls. The problem is that while the microcontroller needs only a milliwatt of power to run, it needs three volts of electricity to turn on, and the sensor has to be within a meter of an industry-standard RFID reader to generate that much energy. But with minor changes to the way the microcontroller processes data, Smith says, the group could reduce the voltage requirement to 1.8 volts, thus extending the range to about five meters.


The team's latest prototype incorporates a light sensor, temperature sensor, and even a tilt sensor into one battery-free device. The researchers are working on ways to integrate the microcontroller and antenna into a single chip that would be easier to install in the field. In the meantime, they have developed a visual demonstration of just how much energy an RFID antenna can garner from a reader: they've used it to power the second hand on a wristwatch.


"It's surprising to people that this invisible form of energy –- radio waves -– can actually make a watch hand move," Smith says. And a single tick of a second hand, Smith says, takes about as much energy as sending one bit of data from his sensor.

Battery Capacity Could Double

GM has tipped its hand about the type of battery materials it aims to use in the next generation of the Chevrolet Volt and other battery-powered cars. It has licensed battery-electrode materials developed at Argonne National Laboratory, a U.S. Department of Energy Lab. These materials, called mixed-metal oxides, could improve the safety and durability of car batteries and help double their energy-storage capacity, potentially leading to substantial costs savings by allowing GM to use a smaller battery pack.


Cost is the biggest problem with the wave of battery-powered vehicles that started to arrive on the market last month. GM's Volt, an electric vehicle that goes 35 miles per charge and has a gasoline generator for longer trips, costs more than twice as much as a similar-sized conventional car, in large part because of the battery such as Compaq Presario 1200 Battery, Compaq Presario 1800 Battery, Compaq Presario 700 Battery, Compaq Presario 900 Battery, Compaq Presario 1700 Battery, Compaq Armada E500 Battery, Compaq EVO N100 battery, Compaq Evo N1020V battery, Compaq Evo N1000C battery, Compaq Evo N115 battery, Compaq Presario 2500 battery, Compaq Presario NX9010 battery and Compaq Presario NX9000 battery. Increasing the amount of energy that a battery stores allows an automaker to use a smaller battery pack, thereby reducing costs.


"The whole concept of improving energy density is the prize when it comes to these kinds of vehicles," says Jon Lauckner, president of GM Ventures, GM's venture-capital arm. He says it's not clear yet how much money the new technology will save, but "suffice it to say, it is significant; it is not a single-digit percentage."


The current model of the Volt uses lithium-ion batteries made with lithium-manganese spinel cathodes ("spinel" refers to the three-dimensional arrangement of atoms in the material). The Argonne patents that GM has licensed cover a cathode material that consists of lithium, nickel, manganese, and cobalt. The material has both active components, through which lithium ions move when the battery is charged or discharged, and inactive ones that help stabilize the active material and extend battery life. Longevity is essential for electric-car batteries, which are designed to last for a decade and have to survive harsh conditions on the road. The new material has such high energy density because it can operate at a higher voltage than current electrode materials and also store more lithium ions.


The patents cover a range of nickel-manganese-cobalt materials, including new variants that GM and Argonne are developing and some components of the current Volt battery electrodes, which is made by LG Chem, a Korean manufacturer. The company has been able to use the materials because the Argonne patents only apply in the United States. But now LG Chem is building a battery-manufacturing plant in Michigan and must license the intellectual property from Argonne for use in products made there. Other companies such as Sharp are also commercializing batteries with nickel-manganese-cobalt electrodes, but of types not covered by Argonne's patents.


To increase storage capacity in future batteries, GM and Argonne (working separately) are modifying the nickel-manganese-cobalt material in a couple of ways, says Jeff Chamberlain, manager of Argonne's battery program.


First, they are changing the relative proportions of the three metals, to create a material able to store more lithium ions. Second, they are "activating" some of the inactive components, by freeing lithium from the inactive material so that it can move between the cathode and the anode. Once the lithium ions are free, they move only in and out of the active material, and the inactive material continues to play its stabilizing role.


Much work remains before these materials can be used in cars. "It's one thing to make powder in a reaction vessel here at Argonne; it's a very different thing to make a battery pack," Chamberlain says. "There is a lot of innovation on the engineering side in terms of turning these materials into batteries."


Doubling the energy density of the cathode does not double the amount of energy the battery pack as a whole can store. The storage capacity of the anodes has to keep pace, and the electrolytes have to be modified to work at higher voltages. Also, all three of these main components of the battery have to be engineered to work well together—for example, in order to limit unwanted chemical reactions. Once engineers have successfully incorporated the electrodes and electrolytes into working battery cells, more engineering is needed to incorporate the cells into battery packs.


The stability of the new materials suggests a way to increase energy density at the pack level, Chamberlain says. The current Volt battery pack is designed with extra energy-storage capacity to ensure that the car's performance doesn't suffer much as the battery ages. He says if future batteries lasted without needing the extra capacity, this would decrease the cost of the pack.


"This is probably the most capable cathode material that we have seen out there, and that's the reason that we think it's really critical that we get started working on this material now, so that we can get it on the road," Lauckner says. "It's going to take some years to further develop it and validate it. The idea is we want to get this on the road for the next generation of battery packs that come out."


Several other companies are working with Argonne's technology, including one, Envia, that is working with Argonne to combine advanced nickel-manganese-cobalt electrode materials with advanced silicon anode materials. This project, which is being funded by the Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy, aims to produce batteries that store three times as much energy as today's lithium-ion car batteries.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Battery Designed

Rechargeable batteries may soon provide greater energy efficiency not only for road traffic, but also for rail transport. Scientists at the research neutron source FRM II of the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM) are taking a closer look at a high performance rechargeable battery for future hybrid locomotives. The focus is on a sodium/iron chloride battery manufactured by General Electric (GE). The study reveals the distribution of chemical substances within the battery during various states of charge.


Physicists and chemists at FRM II screened a half-discharged and a fully discharged General Electric battery cell using an instrument known as ANTARES (Advanced Neutron Tomography and Radiography Experimental System). The system uses neutrons to non-destructively peer deep inside objects. The other alternative, cutting open the battery such as Apple A1175 Battery, Apple A1185 Battery, Apple M9324 Battery, Apple M8403 Battery, Apple M7318 Battery, apple PowerBook G3 Battery, Apple PowerBook G4 Battery, Apple PowerBook G4 15 inch Battery, Apple A1012 Battery, Apple M8511 Battery, Apple M8244 Battery, Apple A1079 Battery and Apple A1078 Battery, would have allowed moisture and air to enter, thereby possibly influencing the highly reactive contents. Making use of radiography, the scientists were able to visualize the level of sodium in the unopened battery.


Using a second instrument at TUM's neutron source, the residual stress and texture diffractometer STRESS-SPEC, the scientists analyzed the exact composition of chemical substances within the cell. Each of the various materials in the battery reacts differently to the neutron radiation, thereby emitting unambiguous signals. In this way the scientists were able to determine the precise reactant distribution within the cell. This is important in establishing how the battery can be charged and discharged as often as possible.


The General Electric batteries are designed for energy savings of at least ten percent. Up to 10,000 of these 2.33 Volt batteries will provide hybrid locomotives with 2000 horsepower. Unlike the lead batteries currently used in motor vehicles, sodium/iron chloride batteries provide not only more than twice the power density, they also have very high performance, as required by locomotives. A further advantage of the batteries tested at FRM II: Unlike the lithium required for lithium batteries, sodium is readily available in nature in the form of sodium chloride, plain cooking salt.


Together with the FRM II, GE is planning to use neutrons in a real-time analysis of the charging and discharging cycles of batteries to determine with even greater precision the distribution of sodium and other substances within the batteries.

Battery Designed

Rechargeable batteries may soon provide greater energy efficiency not only for road traffic, but also for rail transport. Scientists at the research neutron source FRM II of the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM) are taking a closer look at a high performance rechargeable battery for future hybrid locomotives. The focus is on a sodium/iron chloride battery manufactured by General Electric (GE). The study reveals the distribution of chemical substances within the battery during various states of charge.


Physicists and chemists at FRM II screened a half-discharged and a fully discharged General Electric battery cell using an instrument known as ANTARES (Advanced Neutron Tomography and Radiography Experimental System). The system uses neutrons to non-destructively peer deep inside objects. The other alternative, cutting open the battery such as Apple A1175 Battery, Apple A1185 Battery, Apple M9324 Battery, Apple M8403 Battery, Apple M7318 Battery, apple PowerBook G3 Battery, Apple PowerBook G4 Battery, Apple PowerBook G4 15 inch Battery, Apple A1012 Battery, Apple M8511 Battery, Apple M8244 Battery, Apple A1079 Battery and Apple A1078 Battery, would have allowed moisture and air to enter, thereby possibly influencing the highly reactive contents. Making use of radiography, the scientists were able to visualize the level of sodium in the unopened battery.


Using a second instrument at TUM's neutron source, the residual stress and texture diffractometer STRESS-SPEC, the scientists analyzed the exact composition of chemical substances within the cell. Each of the various materials in the battery reacts differently to the neutron radiation, thereby emitting unambiguous signals. In this way the scientists were able to determine the precise reactant distribution within the cell. This is important in establishing how the battery can be charged and discharged as often as possible.


The General Electric batteries are designed for energy savings of at least ten percent. Up to 10,000 of these 2.33 Volt batteries will provide hybrid locomotives with 2000 horsepower. Unlike the lead batteries currently used in motor vehicles, sodium/iron chloride batteries provide not only more than twice the power density, they also have very high performance, as required by locomotives. A further advantage of the batteries tested at FRM II: Unlike the lithium required for lithium batteries, sodium is readily available in nature in the form of sodium chloride, plain cooking salt.


Together with the FRM II, GE is planning to use neutrons in a real-time analysis of the charging and discharging cycles of batteries to determine with even greater precision the distribution of sodium and other substances within the batteries.

Make Energy

Tiny generators developed at the University of Michigan could produce enough electricity from random, ambient vibrations to power a wristwatch, pacemaker or wireless sensor.


The energy-harvesting devices, created at U-M's Engineering Research Center for Wireless Integrated Microsystems, are highly efficient at providing renewable electrical power from arbitrary, non-periodic vibrations. This type of vibration is a byproduct of traffic driving on bridges, machinery operating in factories and humans moving their limbs, for example.


The Parametric Frequency Increased Generators (PFIGs) were created by Khalil Najafi, chair of electrical and computer engineering, and Tzeno Galchev, a doctoral student in the same department.


Most similar devices have more limited abilities because they rely on regular, predictable energy sources, said Najafi, who is the Schlumberger Professor of Engineering and also a professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering.


"The vast majority of environmental kinetic energy surrounding us everyday does not occur in periodic, repeatable patterns. Energy from traffic on a busy street or bridge or in a tunnel, and people walking up and down stairs, for example, cause vibrations that are non-periodic and occur at low frequencies," Najafi said. "Our parametric generators are more efficient in these environments."


The researchers have built three prototypes and a fourth is forthcoming. In two of the generators, the energy conversion is performed through electromagnetic induction, in which a coil is subjected to a varying magnetic field. This is a process similar to how large-scale generators in big power plants operate.


The latest and smallest device, which measures one cubic centimeter, uses a piezoelectric material, which is a type of material that produces charge when it is stressed. This version has applications in infrastructure health monitoring. The generators could one day power bridge sensors that would warn inspectors of cracks or corrosion before human eyes could discern problems.


The generators have demonstrated that they can produce up to 0.5 milliwatts (or 500 microwatts) from typical vibration amplitudes found on the human body. That's more than enough energy to run a wristwatch, which needs between one and 10 microwatts, or a pacemaker, which needs between 10 and 50. A milliwatt is 1,000 microwatts.


"The ultimate goal is to enable various applications like remote wireless sensors and surgically implanted medical devices," Galchev said. "These are long lifetime applications where it is very costly to replace depleted batteries or, worse, to have to wire the sensors to a power source."


Batteries such as IBM ThinkPad T40 Battery, IBM ThinkPad T41 Battery, IBM ThinkPad T42 Battery, IBM ThinkPad T43 Battery, IBM ThinkPad R50 Battery, IBM ThinkPad R51 Battery, IBM ThinkPad R40 Battery, IBM ThinkPad R32 Battery, IBM ThinkPad R60 Battery, IBM ThinkPad T60 Battery, IBM ThinkPad X60 Battery, IBM FRU 92P1167 Battery, IBM ThinkPad Z60t Battery and IBM ThinkPad Z61t Battery are often an inefficient way to power the growing array of wireless sensors being created today, Najafi said. Energy scavenging can provide a better option.


"There is a fundamental question that needs to be answered about how to power wireless electronic devices, which are becoming ubiquitous and at the same time very efficient," Najafi said. "There is plenty of energy surrounding these systems in the form of vibrations, heat, solar, and wind."


These generators could also power wireless sensors deployed in buildings to make them more energy efficient, or throughout large public spaces to monitor for toxins or pollutants.


The research is funded by the National Science Foundation, Sandia National Laboratories, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.


The university is pursuing patent protection for the intellectual property. Galchev and a team of engineering and business students are working to commercialize the technology through their company, Enertia. Enertia recently won first place in the DTE/U-M Clean Energy Prize business plan competition and second place in the U-M Zell Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies' Michigan Business Challenge. Other members of the team are Erkan Aktakka, and Adam Carver. Aktakka is an electrical engineering doctoral student. Carver is an MBA student at the Ross School of Business.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Micro-Supercapacitor

Chmiola is a staff scientist in the Advanced Energy Technologies Department of Berkeley Lab's Environmental Energy Technologies Division. His research is aimed at addressing this problem of relatively short-lived portable energy storage devices. Chmiola believes he has found a solution in electrochemical capacitors, which are commonly referred to as "supercapacitors" because of their higher energy storage densities than conventional dielectric capacitors and higher abuse tolerance than batteries.


In a paper published in the April 23, 2010 issue of the journal Science, titled "Monolithic Carbide-Derived Carbon Films for Micro-Supercapacitors," Chmiola and Yury Gogotsi of Drexel University, along with other co-authors, describe a unique new technique for integrating high performance micro-sized supercapacitors into a variety of portable electronic devices through common microfabrication techniques.


By etching electrodes made of monolithic carbon film into a conducting substrate of titanium carbide, Chmiola and Gogotsi were able to create micro-supercapacitors featuring an energy storage density that was at least double that of the best supercapacitors now available. When used in combination with microbatteries such as Toshiba PA3107U-1BRS Battery, Toshiba PA3285U-1BRS Battery, Toshiba PA3291U-1BRS Battery, Toshiba PA3506U-1BRS Battery, Toshiba PA3591U-1BRS Battery, Toshiba Satellite A10 Battery, Toshiba Satellite A100 Battery, Toshiba Satellite 1900 Battery, Toshiba Satellite 2100 Battery, Toshiba Tecra 9100 Battery and Toshiba Satellite 1900 Battery, the power densities and rapid-fire cycle times of these micro-supercapacitors should substantially boost the performance and longevity of portable electric energy storage devices.


"The prospect of integrating batteries and supercapacitors with the micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) they power represents a conceptual leap forward over existing methods for powering such devices," Chmiola says. "Furthermore, since the same fabrication processes that produced the devices needing the electrical energy also produced the devices storing that energy, we provide a framework for potentially increasing the density of microelectronic devices and allowing improved functionality, reduced complexity, and enhanced redundancy."


The two principal systems today for storing electrical energy are batteries and supercapacitors. Batteries store electrical energy in the form of chemical reactants and generally display even higher energy storage densities than supercapacitors. However, the charging and discharging of a battery exact a physical toll on electrodes that eventually ends the battery's life after several thousand charge-discharge cycles. In supercapacitors, energy is stored as electrical charge, which does not impact electrodes during operation. This allows supercapacitors to be charged and discharged millions of times.


"We have known for some time that supercapacitors are faster and longer-lasting alternatives to conventional batteries," Gogotsi says, "so we decided to see if it would be possible to incorporate them into microelectronic devices and if there would be any advantage to doing so."


Chmiola and Gogotsi chose titanium carbide as the substrate in this study because while all metal carbides can be selectively etched with halogens so that a monolithic carbon film is left behind, titanium carbide is readily available, relatively inexpensive and can be used at the same temperatures as other microfabrication processes.


"Plus, we have a body of work on titanium carbide precursor carbons that provided us with a lot of data to draw from for understanding the underlying science," Chmiola says.


The process started with titanium carbide ceramic plates being cut to size and polished to a thinness of approximately 300 micrometers. The titanium was then selectively etched from one face of the plate using chlorine at elevated temperatures, a process that is similar to current dry-etching techniques for MEMS and microchip fabrications.


Chlorinating the titanium removed the metal atoms and left in place a monolithic carbon film, a material with a proven track record in supercapacitors produced via the traditional "sandwich construction" technique.


"By using microfabrication techniques to produce our supercapacitors we avoided many of the pitfalls of the traditional method," says Chmiola, "namely poor contact between electro-active particles in the electrode, large void spaces between particles that don't store charge, and poor contact between the electro-active materials and the external circuitry."


The electrical charge storage densities of the micro-supercapacitors were measured in two common electrolytes. As promising as the results were, Chmiola notes the impressive figures were achieved without the "decades of optimization" that other electronic devices have undergone. This, he says, "hints at the possibility that the energy density ceiling for microfabricated supercapacitors is, indeed, quite high."


Adds Gogotsi, "Given their practically infinite cycle life, micro-supercapacitors seem ideal for capturing and storing energy from renewable resources and for on-chip operations."


The next step of the work is to scale down the size of the electrodes and improve the dry etching procedure for removing metal atoms from metal carbides to make the process even more compatible with commercial microfabrication technology. At Berkeley Lab, Chmiola is working on the development of new electrolytes that can help increase the energy storage densities of his micro-supercapacitors. He is also investigating the factors that control the usable voltage window of different electrolytes at a carbon electrode.


"My ultimate goals are to increase energy stored to levels closer to batteries, and preserve both the million-plus charge-discharge cycles and recharge times of less than five minutes of these devices," says Chmiola. "I think this is what the end users of portable energy storage devices really desire."


Co-authoring the Science paper with Chmiola and Gogotsi were Celine Largeot, Pierre-Louis Taberna and Patrice Simon of Toulouse University in France.

The Recharge Tale

These rechargeable batteries work because lithium is selfish and wants its own electron. Positively charged lithium ions normally hang out in metal oxide, the stable, positive electrode in batteries. Metal oxide generously shares its electrons with the lithium ions.


Charging with electricity pumps electrons into the negative electrode, and when the lithium ions see the free-floating negative charges across the battery such as Compaq Presario 2100 battery, Compaq Presario 2500 battery, Compaq Presario NX9010 battery, Compaq Presario NX9000 battery, Compaq PP2100 battery, Compaq Presario R3000 battery, compaq Presario M2000 battery, Compaq Presario V2000 battery, Compaq EVO N620C Battery, Compaq Presario 1200 Battery, Compaq Presario 1800 Battery, Compaq Presario 700 Battery and Compaq Presario 900 Battery, they become attracted to life away from the metal oxide cage. So off the lithium ions go, abandoning the metal oxide and its shared electrons to spend time enjoying their own private ones.


But the affair doesn't last -- using the battery in an electronic device creates a conduit through which the slippery electrons can flow. Losing their electrons, the lithium ions slink back to the ever-waiting metal oxide. Recharging starts the whole sordid process over.


Cheaper, Stabler


While cobalt oxide performs well in lithium batteries, cobalt and nickel are more expensive than manganese or iron. In addition, substituting phosphate for oxide provides a more stable structure for lithium.


Lithium iron phosphate batteries are commercially available in some power tools and solar products, but synthesis of the electrode material is complicated. Choi and colleagues wanted to develop a simple method to turn lithium metal phosphate into a good electrode.


Lithium manganese phosphate -- LMP -- can theoretically store some of the highest amounts of energy of the rechargeable batteries, weighing in at 171 milliAmp hours per gram of material. High storage capacity allows the batteries to be light. But other investigators working with LMP have not even been able to eek out 120 milliAmp hours per gram so far from the material they've synthesized.


Choi reasoned the 30 percent loss in capacity could be due to lithium and electrons having to battle their way through the metal oxide, a property called resistance. The less distance lithium and electrons have to travel out of the cathode, he thought, the less resistance and the more electricity could be stored. A smaller particle would decrease that distance.


But growing smaller particles requires lower temperatures. Unfortunately, lower temperatures means the metal oxide molecules fail to line up well in the crystals. Randomness is unsuitable for cathode materials, so the researchers needed a framework in which the ingredients -- lithium, manganese and phosphate -- could arrange themselves into neat crystals.


Wax On, Wax Off


Paraffin wax is made up of long straight molecules that don't react with much, and the long molecules might help line things up. Soap -- a surfactant called oleic acid -- might help the growing crystals disperse evenly.


So, Choi and colleagues mixed the electrode ingredients with melted paraffin and oleic acid and let the crystals grow as they slowly raised the temperature. By 400 Celsius (four times the temperature of boiling water), crystals had formed and the wax and soap had boiled off. Materials scientists generally strengthen metals by subjecting them to high heat, so the team raised the temperature even more to meld the crystals into a plate.


"This method is a lot simpler than other ways of making lithium manganese phosphate cathodes," said Choi. "Other groups have a complicated, multi-step process. We mix all the components and heat it up."


To measure the size of the miniscule plates, the team used a transmission electron microscope in EMSL, DOE's Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory on the PNNL campus. Up close, tiny, thin rectangles poked every which way. The nanoplates measured about 50 nanometers thick -- about a thousand times thinner than a human hair -- and up to 2000 nanometers on a side. Other analyses showed the crystal growth was suitable for electrodes.


To test LMP, the team shook the nanoplates free from one another and added a conductive carbon backing, which serves as the positive electrode. The team tested how much electricity the material could store after charging and discharging fast or slowly.


When the researchers charged the nanoplates slowly over a day and then discharged them just as slowly, the LMP mini battery held a little more than 150 milliAmp hours per gram of material, higher than other researchers had been able to attain. But when the battery was discharged fast -- say, within an hour, that dropped to about 117, comparable to other material.


Its best performance knocked at the theoretical maximum at 168 milliAmp hours per gram, when it was slowly charged and discharged over two days. Charging and discharging in an hour -- a reasonable goal for use in consumer electronics -- allowed it to store a measly 54 milliAmp hours per gram.


Although this version of an LMP battery charges slower than other cathode materials, Choi said the real advantage to this work is that the easy, one-step method will let them explore a wide variety of cheap materials that have traditionally been difficult to work with in developing lithium ion rechargeable batteries.


In the future, the team will change how they incorporate the carbon coating on the LMP nanoplates, which might improve their charge and discharge rates.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Build a Better Lithium-Ion Battery

A tiny scaffold-like titanium structure of Nanonets coated with silicon particles could pave the way for faster, lighter and longer-lasting Lithium-ion batteries, according to a team of Boston College chemists who developed the new anode material using nanotechnology.


The web-like Nanonets developed in the lab of Boston College Assistant Professor of Chemistry Dunwei Wang offer a unique structural strength, more surface area and greater conductivity, which produced a charge/re-charge rate five to 10 times greater than typical Lithium-ion anode material, a common component in batteries for a range of consumer electronics, according to findings published in the current online edition of the American Chemical Society journal Nano Letters.


In addition, the Nanonets proved exceptionally durable, showing a negligible drop-off in capacity during charge and re-charge cycles. The researchers observed an average of 0.1% capacity fade per cycle between the 20th and the 100th cycles.


"As researchers pursue the next generation of re-chargeable Lithium-ion battery technology, a premium has been placed on increased power and a greater battery life span," said Wang. "In that context, the Nanonet device makes a giant leap toward those two goals and gives us a superior anode material."


Lithium-ion batteries such as Sony PCGA-BP1N battery, Sony PCGA-BP2NX battery, Sony PCGA-BP2NY battery, Sony PCGA-BP2R battery, Sony PCGA-BP2S battery, Sony PCGA-BP2T battery, Sony PCGA-BP2V battery, Sony PCGA-BP4V battery, Sony PCGA-BP71 battery, Sony VGP-BPL2 battery, Sony VGP-BPS2 battery, Sony VGP-BPS3 battery, Sony VGP-BPS5 battery and Sony VGP-BPS8 battery are commonly used in consumer electronics devices. This type of rechargeable battery allows Lithium ions to move from the anode electrode to the cathode when in use. When charged, the ions move from cathode back to the anode.


The structure and conductivity of the Nanonets improved the ability to insert and extract Lithium ions from the particulate Silicon coating, the team reported. Running at a charge/discharge rate of 8,400 milliamps per gram (mA/g) -- which is approximately five to 10 times greater than similar devices -- the specific capacity of the material was greater than 1,000 milliamps-hour per gram (mA-h/g). Typically, laptop Lithium-ion batteries are rated anywhere between 4,000 and 12,000 mA/h, meaning it would only take between four and 12 grams of the Nanonet anode material to achieve similar capacity.


Wang said the capability to preserve the crystalline Titanium Silicon core during the charge/discharge process was the key to achieving the high performance of the Nanonet anode material. Additional research in his lab will examine the performance of the Nanonet as a cathode material.

Rechargeable Batteries

Scientists report progress in using a common virus to develop improved materials for high-performance, rechargeable lithium-ion batteries that could be woven into clothing to power portable electronic devices. They discussed development of the new materials for the battery's cathode, or positive electrode, at the 240th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS), being held in Boston.


These new power sources could in the future be woven into fabrics such as uniforms or ballistic vests, and poured or sprayed into containers of any size and shape, said Mark Allen, Ph.D., who presented the report. He is a postdoc in Angela Belcher's group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). These conformable batteries could power smart phones, GPS units, and other portable electronic devices.


"We're talking about fabrics that also are IBM Laptop Battery such as IBM ThinkPad T40 Battery, IBM ThinkPad T41 Battery, IBM ThinkPad T42 Battery, IBM ThinkPad T43 Battery, IBM ThinkPad R50 Battery, IBM ThinkPad R51 Battery, IBM ThinkPad R40 Battery, IBM ThinkPad R32 Battery, IBM ThinkPad R60 Battery, IBM ThinkPad T60 Battery, IBM ThinkPad A20 Battery, IBM ThinkPad A20M Battery, " Allen said. "The batteries, once woven into clothing, could provide power for a range of high-tech devices, including handheld radios, GPS devices and personal digital assistants. They could also be used in everyday cell phones and smart phones."


Batteries produce electricity by converting chemical energy into electrical energy using two electrodes -- an anode and cathode -- separated by an electrolyte. At the ACS meeting, Allen described development of new cathodes made from an iron-fluoride material that could soon produce lightweight and flexible batteries with minimal loss of power, performance, or chargeability compared to today's rechargeable power sources.


Allen has extended ground-breaking work done last year by MIT scientist Angela Belcher and her colleagues, who were the first to engineer a virus as a biotemplate for preparing lithium ion battery anodes and cathodes. The virus, called M13 bacteriophage, consists of an outer coat of protein surrounding an inner core of genes. It infects bacteria and is harmless to people.


"Using M13 bacteriophage as a template is an example of green chemistry, an environmentally friendly method of producing the battery," Allen said. "It enables the processing of all materials at room temperature and in water." And these materials, he said, should be less dangerous than those used in current lithium-ion batteries because they produce less heat, which reduces flammability risks.


The Belcher Biomaterials group is in the beginning stages of testing and scaling up the virus-enabled battery materials, which includes powering unmanned aerial vehicles for surveillance operations. Making light-weight and long-lasting batteries that could result in rechargeable clothing would have several advantages for both military personnel and civilians, Allen added.


"Typical soldiers have to carry several pounds of batteries. But if you could turn their clothing into a battery pack, they could drop a lot of weight. The same could be true for frequent business travellers ― the road warriors ― who lug around batteries and separate rechargers for laptop computers, cell phones, and other devices. They could shed some weight."

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Battery Killers

Ever wonder what kills a laptop battery? It would be easy if there was just one answer, but it is far more complex than that. The fact is that there are many different things that can kill your laptop battery, and most of the time it's caused by the laptop user. We all know laptops are worthless when the battery is dead, so lets find out what cellular laptop batteries hate.


Most of today's laptops use Lithium Ion batteries such as Hp F4098A battery, Hp F4809A battery, Hp F2299A battery, Hp F3172A battery, Hp F1739A battery, Hp Omnibook XE battery, Hp F2024B battery, Hp F2024A battery, Hp HSTNN-DB02 battery, Hp HSTNN-UB02 battery, Hp HSTNN-LB31 battery, Hp EV088AA battery. These batteries are awesome because they are light in weight and hold their charge better than the batteries of the past. Lithium Ion batteries, although long lasting, have some evil nemesis enemies much like superman's kryptonite. The first enemy is other metals. Other metals, when in contact with the Lithium Ion battery can disturb the ions within the battery and make the battery defective.


A lot of reconditioned or refurbished batteries are often the product of the battery touching other metals. Even though refurbished batteries may be enticing to buy as a replacement, they are generally garbage. Refurbished batteries will hold a charge very well for only a short period of time before becoming defective again. The best remedy is to buy a replacement battery directly from the manufacturer of the laptop or a laptop accessory dealer.


The second enemy is water. Although you and I need water to sustain our lives, water will indefinitely end the life of a cellular laptop battery. Water disrupts the Ions and produces a battery that is defective, even if the rest of the laptop looks fine. Dropping your laptop is very common, and most of us drop our laptop at least once a week. Although the laptops are built to withstand occasional drops and look unharmed, the sudden jarring movement can also disrupt the battery attached to the laptop.


Be careful and try to eliminate accidental laptop drops as much as possible. Extreme temperature conditions are also bad for your battery. We had a client that worked in a freezer for a company and he would tell us that he had to replace his laptop battery every 3 months. Batteries naturally need a constant climate as much as possible to operate and function to their full potential. Extreme temperatures also encompasses leaving your laptop on a hot stove or in the hot sun. This amount of high heat will cause the battery to overheat or melt.

Applications of Battery

Small and compact are these electrical powerhouses that make our day-to-day life so easy and manageable. It is environmentally safer to use the rechargeable batteries, as you reduce the toxic waste that occurs when you throw out the used batteries. It is important that you dispose of the discharged batteries in the correct and instructed manner.


Let's discuss some of the uses of batteries


Today VRLA (valve regulated lead acid) batteries are being substituted in a number of applications because of their well regulated charging, avoidance of leakage of the electrolytes and are also used where the traditional flooded batteries cannot be used.

VRLA batteries such as Toshiba PA2487U Battery, Toshiba PA3107U-1BRS Battery, Toshiba PA3285U-1BRS Battery, Toshiba PA3191U-1BRS Battery, Toshiba PA3356U-1BRS Battery, Toshiba PA3291U-1BRS Battery, Toshiba PA3506U-1BRS Battery, Toshiba PA3591U-1BRS Battery, Toshiba Portege 4000 Battery, Toshiba Satellite A10 Battery, Toshiba Satellite A75 Battery, Toshiba Satellite 1900 Battery are suited for the following applications:


Deep Discharge, Deep Cycle Applications:

• Sailboats

• Electronics

• Marine trolling

• Golf carts

• Portable powers

• Floor scrubbers

• Wheelchairs

• Personnel carriers

• Marine and RV house power

• Commercial deep cycle applications


Emergency Backup and Standby Applications:

• Solar power

• Village power

• UPS (Uninterrupted Power Systems)

• Computer backup

• Emergency lighting

• Telephone switching

• Cable television


Unusual Demanding Applications:

• Race cars

• Wet environments

• Air transport equipment

• Marine and RV starting

• Off-road vehicles

• Diesel and I.C.E.


Flooded Batteries:


Flooded lead acid batteries are most commonly used in both the marine and automotive industries. These batteries are generally less expensive than the AGM or Gel battery, but do not offer the same shelf life.


Most flooded batteries require regular maintenance and the electrolyte levels always need to be maintained above the cell's plates.


Deep Cycle Batteries:


Deep cycle batteries are designed to supply all the accessory power without having immediate replacement charge from an alternator or a generator. Unlike car batteries, deep cycle batteries are constructed with thicker grids of antimony lead alloy and have a denser paste to active material so it can withstand discharge and recharge cycles. This ability to deliver a constant power with long cycle life makes the deep cycle battery an ideal solution for a range of both industrial and recreational applications like:

• Caravan battery

• Gold buggies

• Electric scooter

• Four wheel drive vehicles

• Electric wheelchairs

• Boat battery

• Pallet movers

• Scissor lifts

• Solar devices

• Auxiliary power supplies


These are just a few of the applications in which a battery is used.

Friday, January 14, 2011

The Battery Charging Equipment

Widely circulated saying the industry is: the battery is not worn, it is a bad charge. In order to meet short-term electric bicycle high-capacity rechargeable battery, charging in the three-constant voltage current limit, had to constant pressure by increasing the value to 2.47V ~ 2.49V. In this way, much higher than the battery voltage of oxygen evolution at the positive plate and negative plate hydrogen evolution voltage. Some charger manufacturers of products in order to reduce the charging time of instructions, improved float switch current constant pressure, and making full power after charging indicator, there is no full power to compensate by increasing the float voltage. Thus, many of the charger float voltage than single-cell voltage 2.35V, so that a large number of oxygen evolution is still floating stage. The battery in poor oxygen circulation, so that the exhaust are constantly floating stage. High constant value to ensure that the charging time, but the sacrifice is the water loss and cure. Low constant value, and charge into the battery charging time is difficult to guarantee. The battery in improving battery grid alloy to improve the analysis of gas potential, improve oxygen circulation performance, improve the efficiency of sealed response based on the control of the maximum charging voltage 2.42V charging less, that is, hydrogen evolution potential in the following. This will inevitably lead to the extension of the charging time, which must be charged in the high current (limiting charge) of the state, adding to the polarization of the negative pulse, to improve the battery's charge acceptance in the high current charging more than filled the time Some power and reduces the charging time. 70% of the 2C charging current, battery charge acceptance is relatively large when using large current charging the Battery such as dell Inspiron E1705 battery, dell Inspiron 6000 battery, dell 75UYF battery, Dell Precision M40 battery, Dell Precision M50 battery, dell 6Y270 battery, dell Latitude D620 battery, dell PC764 battery, dell TD175 battery, dell Latitude D820 battery, dell Inspiron 6400 battery, dell Inspiron E1505 battery and dell Inspiron 1501 battery, damage to the battery is relatively small. Basically, the battery voltage is not higher than that of a serious hydrogen evolution. Once above the hydrogen evolution voltage, the battery will be fast water loss. The use of such chargers, must be a continuous charge and discharge a few days if the half-way stop charging, the battery will have a more serious lapse prematurely curing. And users use the battery, is no guarantee that after each use, are able to charge in time, occur several times within a year the situation is not promptly charged, the battery will be the accumulation of sulfide. Most chargers manufacturers say the depot because of the price factor does not accept the charger can guarantee the battery life. Admittedly, this is most small businesses is the case, however, for development, the scale of the large companies do not buy the expensive good charger. Some charger manufacturers to exaggerate certain features, not the effectiveness of its promotional products as well. There are many features to sell the concept of function, effectiveness is limited.


Other reasons

Many cells in the single test, it can get good results, but the battery pack for the thread, because of capacity, the open circuit voltage, state of charge, curing varying degrees, the difference will be in series with the battery pack is expanded, a single experience of the poor state of the entire group of batteries, their life significantly decreased. Cong charge the battery in the production line, to the user with car after car use this time to go through many Huanjie interval of time or even for months, in this period, as not to supplement the battery power, resulting from the discharge of lead sulfate large accumulation of crystals, the user just bought a new battery may have been reported to charge the battery and even aging. When the battery manufacturers in the implementation of quality assurance, on the recovery of the battery is not completely eliminated. After back to back the battery, the battery manufacturer to re-charge and discharge test, the test often found in more than 60% of single cells is inconsistent with the conditions of the batteries back to back. The reason for that is in series with the battery pack, the individual behind the formation of the entire set of battery cells function decline caused by the whole group back to back. Many battery manufacturers to take back to back with the battery group, pay, in addition to sulfur, packaging, again available to users to increase the effective battery life, reduce scrap, reduce some of the battery manufacturer's claim for loss of management Therefore, many dealers have already felt the battery was provided by the manufacturer, "Generations." Electric vehicle Battery when used properly, the general problem of the battery is not used for 3 years or so, on the contrary, greatly reduce the service life is short. Therefore, consumers daily maintenance of electric vehicle batteries electric car battery life is to determine the key.