Carbon Nanotube enhanced Li-Ion Batteries

Energiser bunny arrested, charged with battery....well sort of

Life today is electronic; connected; made possible by devices which bring information at our fingertips (or rather mobile screens) when and where we want them. For all the power and promise of these miraculous- and now ubiquitous devices, their effectiveness is stymied by the most basic (and oldest) of problems.
Energy!
Modern devices have to maintain their lilliputian size to please the modern consumer and for practicality of mobility, but this comes at the price of smaller and lower capacity battery. Lithium polymer batteries are the latest in battery tech, but they also collide against their limitations when faced with the onslaught of the power hungry and demanding nature of today's consumers. These batteries have high energy densities, capable of providing energy slowly, for hours at end, but they also take a long time to charge and have less power. Capacitors are small devices which can hold electrical charge. They charge up quickly and deliver that in a single powerful burst at a precise moment. Camera flash is the easiest example which comes to mind.
Batteries have a positively charged anode, electrically linked to a negatively charged cathode via a conducting solution called an electrolyte. Positively charged ions move from anode to cathode, generating a current to power our devices, while recharging moves these ions back to anode. An ideal battery would be something which would combine the rapid charging and high power output of a capacitor with the energy density of a battery.
A research group in MIT may have answered our digital prayers, they managed to upgrade the cathode to a whole new level using carbon nanotubes- single molecule thick tubes of carbon- coated with a chemical which gave them a negative or a positive charge. The researchers dipped a base substrate material alternately into a positive and negatively charged carbon nanotube solutions. The oppositely charged layers allowed the nanotubes to successfully self-assemble into monolayers rather then getting clumped together (link to article).This ensured that the nano-scale porosity of the carbon nanotubes was maintained, making a large number of oxygen atoms accessible to incoming cations. Along with the very high conductivity of carbon nanotubes, the cathode could accept a large number of cations and move them very quickly, generating a large amount of power and retaining the energy capacity of a battery. The newly fangled contraption gives energy output 5 times that of a capacitor at a power delivery rate 10 times that of a lithium ion battery.

Several problems remain though, for rapid commercialisation. For example: The researchers created the electrode manually, with a 3 micrometer thick electrode consuming 8000 minutes to make. Scaling up of the technology in a rapid yet cost-effective manner is necessary and is underway. If this should work out the days of iPhones and Droids going the distance after a single juice up are not far off, nor are, for that matter, electric vehicles powered by powerful batteries.

On the Wings of a Butterfly

The wings of a butterfly attract our attention for their marvellous colours. Have you noticed how the colour in some butterfly wings change depending on observer's position? These colours and their changing behaviour is because of well defined patterns on the wings. These patterns are visible when observed through nano-scale viewing microscopes (Scanning Electron Microscopes or Atomic Force Microscopy etc.). The physics behind these colours is now well understood, a combination of reflection, refraction and diffraction. Unlike reflection and refraction, it is the principle of diffraction which depends on the size of different shapes on the wings.

Recently, researchers in Cambridge Nano-science Centre have not just replicated these butterfly wings at the nanoscale but have shown capacity to tune their behaviour by selectively altering the nanoscale shapes. They have done this by the bottom-up approach (link), making small objects and thin films one-at-a-time.

This approach followed by researchers helps to create even more beautiful colours (see image below, click to enlarge) and aids in confirming the earlier proposed mechanisms which produce the concoction of colours on the wings of a butterfly (link to article).

Reprinted by permission from Macmillan Publishers Ltd: Nature Nanotechnology (PUBLISHED ONLINE: 30 MAY 2010 | DOI: 10.1038/NNANO.2010.101), copyright 2010.

Open Innovation in Nanotechnology

One of the most significant new evolving development concepts in industry is Open-Innovation. Companies facing an issue pose a question for the whole wide world like a challenge. It is a leap in corporate culture where it is now realized that the best way to solve a problem is by sharing it.


The firms do not risk too much but can benefit a lot since:
(a) If someone has a solution then it would be virtually impossible for an individual or a small player to overtake the giant corporation and thus would not pose a threat,
(b) Moreover no one would give the 'solution finder' a better quick reward than the solution seeker themselves.


It is here that most academic research /inventors/free lancers etc. and industry are crossing paths. Open innovation inventor Henry Chesbrough's blog.


Nanotechnology can benefit significantly from open innovation-
Nanotechnology can be divided into bottom-up or top-down approaches. The top-down approach is where existing products are miniaturized. This is often reflected in the rapidly evolving electronic market which are catered-to by foundries in Taiwan and S.Korea. These foundries make small transistors for electronic chips. 
But from the open-innovation pov, bottom-up approach is where most of todays research is focussed since it has shown enormous potential to improve every sphere of life - medicine, textiles, cosmetics, chemicals etc. even steel is being made stronger (http://www.outokumpu.com/).
One of the key challenges is the multidisciplinary nature of nanotechnology and nano-related sciences (Shea 2005; Palmberg and Nikulainen 2006 link). Nanotechnology and nanosciences draw upon a variety of different disciplines. It is related to both organic and inorganic disciplines, such as physics, chemistry, biology and biosciences. Thus, for large incumbents to benefit from the technological and scientific advances in nanotechnology it might be best to share the problems or collaborate with research organizations. Thus by spreading the awareness of the problem among relevant knowledge groups the companies stand the best chance to find a solution and gain an edge over their competitor.


Here is a sample list of selected open innovation initiatives relevant to the nano-sphere and otherwise


1. Identification of new materials that mimic human skin (link)
2. Solutions to the response to the 'OIL SPILL IN THE GULF OF MEXICO' (link)
3. Submit your innovation to P&G (link)
4. Nokia's collaborative open innovation world map (link)

Apple's Iphone 4 - Whats nano about that ?

Apple unveiled the new iphone 4 yesterday in San Francisco, their design homeland from where originate their license to publish 'Designed in California' on all products.
It is an amazing product with many new features well visible here (this would need quicktime installed). With this product Apple aims to re-conquer lost ground after Google's android and other smartphones capitalized market and application developer's inclination.


At the heart of the great many features is the new A4 processor manufactured by Samsung. Wherein lies nanotechnology..this new processor is made of transistors (the basic binary computing unit used in electronics today) with features as small as 45 nanometers (nm), roughly a thousand times smaller than the thickness of human hair. For an amazing analysis of the chip see details here.


Simply put:
Smaller the transistors, larger their number on a chip. Thus, either the device can be smaller or if the chip is still the same size then faster or both. Earlier versions were made by the 65nm technology.


For the new iphone 4 Apple has chosen both increased speed and reduced size and Samsung has delivered.


This new A4 processor can clock 1GHz speed which allows the software gurus to harness this capacity by multi-threading, piping; otherwise, efficient coding etc. amply visible in the use of any Apple Operating System.


Great advance in nanotechnology by Samsung coupled with novel Apple OS has produced the new marvel - Iphone 4.