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Mmmm, delicious new sugar batteries keep gadgets up all night

We.. like... full-fat batts and we cannot lie

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Boffins have discovered they can improve battery capacity by using sucrose - aka table sugar - to create the anode material.

Shinichi Komaba and his team at Tokyo University of Science made the discovery during their efforts to produce commercially viable sodium-ion batteries, according to Japanese tech site DigInfo.tv. The eggheads hope to create high-performance alternatives to lithium-ion storage cells.

By pyrolising sucrose – heating it at 1,000 to 1,500 degrees Celsius in the absence of oxygen, for example in a stream of argon or nitrogen – they were able to create a new type of black hard carbon powder.

This material functions effectively as a battery anode, which is the negative (-) terminal of the device. The zapped sucrose increases storage capacity by 20 per cent to 300 mAh over conventional hard carbon, the report continued.

The scientists spent seven years researching sodium-ion batteries in an attempt to find an alternative to the more common lithium ion variety, which is particularly expensive in Japan because the country needs to import its entire supply of lithium.

"In fact, the supply of sodium is unlimited. Also, sodium-ion batteries can be made using iron, aluminium, and sodium, rather than cobalt or copper as before. What's more, our results show that battery capacity can be increased simply by using carbon made from sugar as the anode,” Komaba told the site.

“So high-performance batteries like expensive lithium batteries, which are an important type of rechargeable battery, may be achievable using cheaper, more abundant materials. We believe that, if the technology and performance can be improved, development may progress toward practical batteries that can replace lithium ion batteries."

Sodium ion batteries may now be a commercial reality within the next five years, according to Komaba.

Sodium-based batteries have already been suggested by researchers at Perth’s Murdoch University as a less toxic alternative to lead-acid batteries in solar power installations. ®

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Re: Is it that time of the month again already?

It's not their fault. Vast improvements in battery power have been made in the last few decades.

But every time your "publicity whore(s)" go and make a better battery, instead of using it properly so it'll last longer, you just go and put more load on it and charge it improperly.

Now, if you took your iPhone battery and hooked it to an actual phone (say a Nokia 3310), the battery would last for about 60 years!

9
0

Actually...

...they'll run on mouldy banan skins, and be called Mr Fusion.

I've seen the future, and it has floating skateboards...

8
0

No joke

This may be the best news we've had in years. So much of today's tech depends on Li Ion batts that it's frightening.

6
0

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