http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22191650
A new type of battery has been developed that, its creators say, could revolutionise the way we power consumer electronics and vehicles.
The University of Illinois team says its use of 3D-electrodes allows it to build "microbatteries" that are many times smaller than commercially available options, or the same size and many times more powerful.
It adds they can be recharged 1,000 times faster than competing tech.
However, safety issues still remain.
Details of the research are published in the journal Nature Communications.
Battery breakthrough
The researchers said their innovation should help address the issue that while smartphones and other gadgets have benefited from miniaturised electronics, battery advances have failed to keep pace.
Batteries work by having two components - called electrodes - where chemical reactions occur.
In simple terms, the anode is the electrode which releases electrons as a result of a process called oxidation.
The cathode is the electrode on the other side of the battery to which the electrons want to flow and be absorbed - but a third element, the electrolyte, blocks them from travelling directly.
When the battery is plugged into a device the electrons can flow through its circuits making the journey from one electrode to the other.
Meanwhile ions - electrically charged particles involved in the anode's oxidation process - do travel through the electrolyte. When they reach the cathode they react with the electrons that travelled via the other route.
The scientists' "breakthrough" involved finding a new way to integrate the anode and cathode at the microscale.
"The battery electrodes have small intertwined fingers that reach into each other," project leader Prof William King told the BBC.
"That does a couple of things. It allows us to make the battery have a very high surface area even though the overall battery volume is extremely small.
イリノイ大学のチームが開発したという。
ブレークスルーというのはアノードとカソードを統合する新しい方法を発見したことだという。
このことで超小型化が可能になったという。
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