Researchers at the University of California, Irvine, have developed a groundbreaking nanowire-based battery material that can be recharged hundreds of thousands of times, bringing us closer to batteries that may never need replacement.
This innovation could dramatically extend the lifespan of batteries for various devices, including computers, smartphones, appliances, electric vehicles, and even spacecraft.
The key to this breakthrough lies in the use of nanowires, which are thousands of times thinner than human hair and highly conductive. Although nanowires hold great potential for energy storage, they are typically too fragile to withstand repeated charging cycles—until now.
The UCI team, led by doctoral candidate Mya Le Thai, solved this fragility problem by coating gold nanowires with a manganese dioxide shell and encasing the structure in a Plexiglas-like gel. This combination proved to be incredibly resilient, with Thai cycling the electrode 200,000 times without any loss of capacity or power.
The gel layer seems to provide flexibility, preventing the cracking and degradation that usually limit the lifespan of nanowire-based batteries. This discovery represents a major step toward commercializing long-lasting, nanowire-based batteries, and it highlights the potential for future energy storage solutions that could transform numerous industries. The findings were published in the American Chemical Society’s Energy Letters.
