Scientists have succeeded in creating powerful high-voltage batteries of small size. This was reported by the press service of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Creating power devices for miniature robots poses a problem: the battery cannot be increased or decreased arbitrarily. It requires a complete redesign of the structure and possibly the use of other materials.
Paul Brown and colleagues have created sealed, rugged, compact lithium batteries with an extremely low package-mass ratio. They also have high operating voltages, high power and energy densities. “The problem is that as the batteries get smaller, the case ratio dominates the volume and mass of the battery, and the electrode area gets smaller. This leads to a sharp decrease in the energy and power of the battery,” explains the engineer.
Researchers have developed a new type of package in which the positive and negative current collectors are part of the package itself rather than a separate component. Therefore, the proportion of the object in the mass is 10%. In addition, they stacked the electrode cells vertically in series (thereby increasing the voltage of each cell), which made it possible to obtain a high operating voltage of the battery – 9 volts.
The device also uses very dense electrodes. Conventional electrodes make up about 40% of the volume occupied by polymers and carbon additives instead of active materials. Brown’s group augmented the electrodes by direct electrodeposition, removing polymer and carbon additives. As a result, the specific power and energy reserve of the battery is significantly higher than that of commercially available analogues.
First of all, such power sources are needed for miniature robots that can go through the smallest cracks to search for people under debris or inspect buildings and equipment.
Source: Gazeta
Barbara Dickson is a seasoned writer for “Social Bites”. She keeps readers informed on the latest news and trends, providing in-depth coverage and analysis on a variety of topics.