Communications of the ACM
Self-Assembling 3D Battery Would Charge in Seconds
Researchers at Cornell University have created a novel energy storage device architecture that has the potential for lightning-quick charges.
Credit: Wiesner Group
Cornell University researchers have developed an energy storage device architecture with the potential for extremely fast charges.
The design intertwines the anode and cathode components in a self-assembling, three-dimensional (3D) gyroidal structure, with thousands of nanoscale pores filled with the components necessary for energy storage and delivery.
Researcher Ulrich Wiesner says the 3D architecture essentially eliminates losses from dead volume and brings significantly higher power density by reducing the dimensions of these interpenetrated domains to the nanoscale, which greatly speeds energy access compared with conventional battery architectures, charging batteries in seconds or perhaps even faster.
The new architecture is based on block copolymer self-assembly. The gyroidal thin films of carbon, the battery's anode, have thousands of periodic pores coated with an electronically insulating but ion-conducting separator through electropolymerization, which creates a pinhole-free separation layer. Sulfur is used as the cathode material, in an amount that does not quite fill the remainder of the pores. The final step is backfilling with an electronically conducting polymer.
From Cornell Chronicle (NY)
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