Following the first and second write-ups about some of the recent developments in the New Energy field, I thought it was time for a 3rd instalment.

Nanotech Energy

Last time we spoke about Nanotech Energy, Dr. Richard Kaner had just discovered the simple LightScribe process of creating graphene-based supercapacitors in an DVD drive. Now they’re working in partnership with Henrik Fisker to create the world’s first electric vehicle powered by supercapacitors instead of Lithium-ion batteries. Fisker’s first attempt at electric vehicles was hampered by the same problems encountered by the Samsung Galaxy Note 7; exploding batteries. Over 6 000 Fisker Karma vehicles had to be recalled and the company haemorrhaged. Not one to give up, however, Henrik Fisker came up with a a bold solution; graphene supercapacitors from Nanotech Energy. He plans to reveal the electric car in the latter half of 2017.

Ionic Materials

Ionic Materials is a technology company that developed a new solid state polymer that has all of the properties required to replace the liquid electrolytes used in today’s batteries. Replacing these electrolytes (many of which are flammable and toxic) with the solid state material drastically improves battery safety, enables the use of higher performance and lower cost materials, and enables the use of simpler and lower-cost manufacturing methods. Basically their batteries will be safer, cheaper, and have a higher energy density than Lithium-ion batteries.

StoreDot

The Samsung-backed Israeli company has been in R&D phase for a while but is now finally ready to offer their first commercial products beginning at the end of of 2017. Namely an iPhone battery case and a powerbank. The battery case needs only a 5 minute recharge to provide 8 hours of phone time, while the powerbank fully charges from 0 to 100% in 5 minutes. Their entire tech is based on what they call Nanodots, chemically-synthesized organic peptide molecules of non-biological origin.

John Goodenough

The creator of the lithium-ion battery has now developed version 2.0 of it, more than 30 years later. A safer, solid state version, utilizing glass instead of the liquid electrolytes found in today’s lithium-ion batteries, capable of storing 3 times more energy, and charging 10 times faster. One of the problems with recent solid state batteries has been the brittleness of the ceramic electrolytes they use as wells as their difficulty to manufacture in high volumes. I wonder therefore what type of glass Goodenough proposes as glass can be expected to be way more brittle than ceramics. But we shall see. The picture below says it all: