PORTABLE POWER

Scientists at Rice University have made a breakthrough in microsupercapacitors. Currently they are expensive to make but using lasers that could soon change by using lasers to burn electrode patterns into sheets of plastic, manufacturing costs and effort drop. The result is a battery that can charge 50 times faster than current batteries and discharge even slower than current supercapacitors.; Sodium-ion batteries, that use salt, have been used in laptops following the creation of a prototype by the French network of researchers and industrial firms called RS2E. This battery uses a standard that means it can be placed in laptops and even work in electric cars like the Tesla Model S. The exact method on build and how it works are being kept secret but the 6.5cm battery can manage 90 watt-hours per kilogram, making it comparable to lithium-ion but with a 2000 cycle lifespan.; The future of batteries is 3D. Prieto is the first company to crack this with its battery that uses a copper foam substrate. These batteries will not only be safer, thanks to no flammable electrolyte, but will also have a longer life, charge faster, have a five times higher density, be cheaper to make and be smaller than current batteries. Prieto aims to put its batteries into small items first, like wearables. But says the batteries can be up-scaled for phones and maybe even cars in the future.; Scientists at MIT have discovered solid-state batteries that are better than current lithium-ion efforts. These batteries should be safer, last longer and offer more power. Current lithium-ion batteries rely on an electrolyte liquid to transport charged particles between the two electrodes. This liquid can be flammable and degrades the battery, limiting its life. According to the MIT report these new batteries could be charged for hundreds of thousands of cycles before degrading. They could also provide a 20 to 30% improvement in power density meaning more charge for whatever it’s powering. And they aren't flammable so they're ideal for electric cars.; Scientists at Stanford University have developed an aluminum graphite battery that could replenish to full in a smartphone in just a minute. Their aluminum graphite batteries are flexible, long lasting and charge extremely fast. An issue is they hold about half the power of a current lithium battery.; Researchers at the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) at UCLA have set the stage for a watershed in mobile energy storage by using a special graphene material to significantly boost the energy density of electrochemical capacitors. The material, called a holey graphene framework, has a three-dimensional, perforated structure characterized by tiny holes. It increases energy density and allows electrochemical capacitors to maintain their high power density.