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Energy

A nanowire battery that won’t die

Gel electrolyte dramatically extends nanowire electrode lifetime to 100,000 charges

by Katherine Bourzac
May 9, 2016 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 94, Issue 19

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Credit: ACS Energy Lett.
Manganese dioxide-coated nanowires charged and discharged in the presence of liquid electrolyte lose their MnO2 coating (green arrows) and fail to work after 4,000 charging cycles (top), but those in the presence of polymethyl methacrylate gel electrolyte remain intact and functional after 100,000 cycles (bottom).
Micrographs of manganese dioxide coated nanowires charged and discharged with gel electrolyte and liquid electrolyte.
Credit: ACS Energy Lett.
Manganese dioxide-coated nanowires charged and discharged in the presence of liquid electrolyte lose their MnO2 coating (green arrows) and fail to work after 4,000 charging cycles (top), but those in the presence of polymethyl methacrylate gel electrolyte remain intact and functional after 100,000 cycles (bottom).

Imagine a battery that never stops holding a charge. An experimental energy storage electrode lasts as long as researchers have had the patience to charge and recharge it—so far, more than 100,000 times (ACS Energy Lett. 2016, DOI: 10.1021/acsenergylett.6b00029). Nanowire battery electrodes can provide a lot of power in a small footprint, says Reginald M. Penner of the University of California, Irvine, but they are prone to breaking. Penner’s group used a test setup to study manganese dioxide-coated gold nanowires, a potential lithium-ion battery cathode material. The group tested the wires with a typical liquid electrolyte and with a polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) gel electrolyte—commonly used in solid-state batteries. Cathodes paired with the liquid electrolyte survived 2,000 to 8,000 charge cycles, but the one with PMMA survived 100,000 full charges and discharges—even in a test system designed to encourage failure. The gel may hold the MnO2 in place, Penner says, preventing it from breaking off of the gold below. Or the gel may slowly leak into pores in the MnO2 and plasticize it, preventing fracturing, he suggests.

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