What is the Achilles heel of mobiles? If you ask users, surely one answer is repeated: the battery. In other words, the need to load them constantly, and the slowness with which they do it. Engineers are racking their brains to solve this problem, and a new advance made at Drexel University , in Philadelphia (USA), brings a little closer to the possibility that our smartphones will finally work with ultra-fast recharge batteries .
Led by Yuri Gogotsi, American experts have created a highly conductive electrode with a two-dimensional material called MXene to emulate the ability of supercapacitors. These devices, which charge and discharge in a matter of milliseconds, work through physical processes, compared to the chemicals in conventional batteries. Used, for example, in the flashes of cameras, hybrid vehicles or the engines of tanks and submarines, the downside is that they are expensive and store little energy.
The MXene electrode has a microporous structure that allows ions (electrically charged particles) to take multiple paths “on high-speed highways , rather than one-way roads, as in normal batteries,” explains Maria Lukatsakaya graphically, researcher who has participated in the development of the device. Thus, the batteries incorporating the new electrodes would achieve the high electrical density of supercapacitors and their performance. And at a much lower cost.
Discovered in 2011, MXene’s potential is being tested not only as a battery-making material, but also in other applications, such as water purifying filters .
References:
Nature Energy 6, Article number: 17105 (2017). doi: 10.1038 / nenergy.2017.105
