Is this the battery breakthrough we’ve been waiting for?
Researchers at Stanford have developed a new Lithium Ion battery with 10x the capacity of current batteries using silicon nanowires instead of carbon to hold the lithium in the anode. Apparently silicone has been known for some time to hold more lithium than carbon does, but it breaks down due to swelling and shrinking that takes place during charge and discharge. The key is that the nanowires do not degrade, so the battery performance stays high.
This could be a huge breakthrough and it seems that they believe it is already commercially viable. I know I would welcome a 30 hour laptops or a 10 hour laptop with 1/3 of the battery weight!
