New power for your popcorn...

The quest for ever smaller batteries is no news in the auto industry, now that EVs and assorted hybrids loom inevitably on the not-too-distant horizon. But courtesy of the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), a giant leap for the industry and perhaps mankind is on the way in the form of batteries smaller than a grain of salt, according to a report from Gizmag. That's what they're gunning for, anyway and why DARPA is stumping up the funds for the research work undertaken by the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA).

At a symposium in Albuquerque, New Mexico last week, UCLA engineer Jane Chang presented a work in progress in the form of an electrolyte designed to facilitate the flow of charge between electrodes in such confined spaces. The aim, she told her audience, is to achieve energy densities similar to lithium ion batteries, but with a much smaller footprint.

In fact, lithium forms a key part of her formula, which entails coating a matrix of micro-pillars with the electrolyte lithium aluminosilicate. The lithium is suspended in a substance capable of being sprayed on to these nano-wires in layers just one atom thick. Energy density is dependent on surface-to-volume ratio, so the trick lies in structuring these nano-wires in a relationship that maximises that.

While Chang and her colleagues have also come up with appropriate materials and structures for the electrodes, she says it will be a while before they present a fully functional microbattery of any kind, let alone for automotive applications. The UCLA/DARPA project represents the makings of a holy grail for battery electric vehicle development; the smaller the package, the easier it is to incorporate in a vehicle without conceding interior space or weight distribution.

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