“Air” Battery Being Developed

air battery

Fed up with the current life of your laptop or mobile battery? There could soon be some help on the way from a battery powered by that most available of all natural resources – air.

This technology could be used to power everything from laptops to electric cars which could finally get the extended range that many say they require before considering a purchase. They’ll enable a constant output from natural resources which should also give renewable energy a major boost.

The battery will use oxygen in the air when discharging rather than the chemicals used in batteries today. With the lack of chemicals the new batteries can be both smaller and lighter – or carry a higher charge for the same size.

The research which is being conducted at St Andrews will last four years (it’s currently just made it passed two) and aims to increase the life of normal batteries between five and ten times the amount they can charge for now – far beyond current technology.

Right now they’ve managed three times normal charge on their STAIR prototype battery, so there’s some real progress as well as vague promises. It’ll be really nice to think that in the years to come we’ll have laptops that can last for days instead of hours and electric cars that don’t need to e constantly charging in order to get anywhere.

We’ll wait and see.

Posted on May 28, 2009 | Filed Under Tech