Since the birth of batteries, their charging time and life have been a major concern for all. Today vehicles like Hybrid and electric cars, mobile devices like iPhones, Omnia and others running energy intense applications, that all demand more battery life and power. Consequently the time a battery  can go without a recharge, becomes a more pressing issue. Batteries are an integral part of almost all devices, ranging from cellphones in our pocket to cars and to satellites. Lithium-Ion batteries are the most used type today, implemented on the principal of electrolysis. When Lithium-Ion batteries are charged, lithium ions rush from lithium cathode to carbon anode, while some additional electrons move in from external electric circuit. This process is reversed on discharging.

Silicon after revolutionizing the electronic chip industry is now on its way to give a quantum shift in electronic batteries with the help of Nano Technology.  Silicon, besides of overcoming some of the limitations of carbon (i.e used today as anode material), can take up much more lithium ions as the energy density of silicon is 10 times more as compared to carbon. A company named Amprius founded by Stanford University professor (Dr. Yi Cui) is working on new type of anode for lithium-ion batteries. This new anode is made up of Silicon NanoWires. These NanoWires are  promised to let electric vehicles travel farther and mobile devices last longer without a recharge. According to Dr. Yi Chi these NanoWires can store 10 times more charge compared to carbon anode used today. It will enable Vehicles to cover additional 180 miles and laptops 3 hours of more battery life before next recharge. Professor Yi Cui demonstrated Silicon NanoWires that not only provide charge storage capacity approximately equal to the theoretical value for Silicon, without any damage to these anodes, also these anodes are flexible and easy to mold which help in managing internal strain during charging and discharging. Above all a collection of these NanoWires provide more surface area providing more room for lithium ions to interact with anode.

(Silicon NanoWires)

Ampirus has made significant improvements in its NanoWire growth process and is in touch with vehicle and electronics manufacturers. Nanowires are grown from a gas on a metal substrate coated with a catalyst . According to Yi Cui the development process uses a more conductive substrate and a cheaper catalyst.

Besides anode no doubt Cathode and Electrolyte are also integral parts for the whole process and company has to focus on this aspect also. With its initial design that uses NanoWires with thick cathode the company is capable of storing 40 percent more charge as compared to the same sized Lithium-Ion battery.

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