Science:
To extend the driving range of electric cars, researchers have
been working on a better battery. Now Peter Bruce and coworkers
at the University of Saint Andrews in the UK
report
in
Science that they've developed the first stable
lithium–air battery. Such batteries have the desirable
feature of high energy density, but their electrodes and
electrolytes have turned out to be unstable. By replacing the
usual carbon cathode with one made from inert gold
nanoparticles and using the common conductive solvent
DMSO as the
electrolyte, the team succeeded in building a battery that was
"stable for 100 charge and discharge cycles with only a 5% loss
of power," writes Robert Service for
Science. Although gold is too heavy and too expensive
to be used in a car battery, the team's results show promise
for future research.
