A few weeks ago I was all pumped about nano-ultracapacitors for improving battery performance, but this development might come to fruition faster because it’s an improvement on existing technologies: using a matrix of nano-sized silicon wires in Lithium-Ion batteries to extend the life of the battery by a factor of 10.
As the press release says, silicon batteries were thought impractical because they could hold enough charge in a larger form. Now, by reducing the silicon to nano-wires, the amount of lithium that can be stored in a battery can be exponentially increased, and the nano-wires do not degrade over time. So a laptop battery could last for 20 hours instead of the usual 2-4.
Because the technologies are better understood, the researchers think the time-to-market will not be as long as other nanopower technologies.
