Originally published February 1 2005
mPhase developing nanobatteries with silicon, water
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Providing power for nanodevices is one of the technical challenges to the nanotechnology industry. mPhase Technologies Inc. is trying to create sophisticated nano-batteries out of silicon filaments and water droplets. mPhase, working in partnership with Bell Labs, has demonstrated a concept nanobattery that is only a few hundred microns high.
In more ways than one, it's a delicate balancing act that mPhase Technologies Inc. wants to execute.
First is the company's technology: making a nanobattery by placing droplets of water on filaments of silicon.
Working in partnership with Bell Labs, mPhase has demonstrated a proof-of-concept nanobattery crammed with filaments of silicon "nanograss" only a few hundred microns high and is working on a prototype that can illuminate a light-emitting diode.
On Dec. 16, it reported that the military, oil industry and homeland defense expressed interest in using its nanobatteries to power sensors.
"The idea was to take stuff in the lab that was going nowhere from a commercial point of view, and focus it on a particular technology," Simon said.
Using standard lithography techniques, researchers carve silicon filaments several hundred microns high and 300 nanometers in diameter.
The filaments are coated with water-repellent materials, so that droplets of liquid balance atop the nanograss but never touch them.
A jolt of heat or electricity then bursts the droplets; they spill onto the nanograss, the ions generate power, and the filaments carry the electricity to whatever device is attached.
Forging the correct nanostructures is one part of the process, "but the other part is getting the surface property correct," said Tom Krupenkin, a Bell Labs researcher working on the battery.
At such small scale, mPhase's batteries have several advantages, Simon said.
Because the electrolyte is so close to the electrode (the silicon), they generate power faster than normal batteries; yet because the two surfaces never touch until activation, they should never corrode.
Dale Teeters, a University of Tulsa chemistry professor who studies nanobatteries, said a primary goal is to export the increased efficiency of nanobatteries to regular batteries, usually by building ever-smaller components.
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