Researchers create smallest nanowire battery ever

Rice University scientists announced they figured out how to squish all three parts of a lithium storage device onto one nanowire with all key parts: anode, cathode, and electrolyte.

Keep in mind, the battery is so small, you can barely see it with your eyes when you look at it from a certain angle because its diameter is that of a human hair.

But the device has thousands of nanowires that work together as a battery and could one day power nanoscale electronics, according to researchers.
Rice engineer Pulickel Ajayan told PhysOrg.com:

“We have demonstrated the working of a nanowire array device planted over a geometric area of about 0.5 cm². Devices at this scale could be used to power several MEMS devices. Ultimately, individual nanowire batteries could each power a few nanowire semiconductor devices, for example.”

The researchers showed that the battery has good charge and discharge abilities, all things that would make it perform well as a battery. The main components include a nickel-tin anode, polyethylene oxide (PEO) electrolyte and polyaniline cathode.

Also, the scientists showed that lithium ions could move through the battery and store the ions. Anjayan explained that by putting the cathode inside the nanowire, the device was designed not only to store energy but could also act as an insulator.

The team had been working towards building the single-nanowire device for a while. Last fall, they created three-dimensional nanobatteries.

For now, the researchers are working on improving the battery’s efficiency and will worry about the real applications in the future.

The main focus now is to improve the performance of the battery by fiddling with the types of materials in the system.

via Rice University