nano Lithium

http://www.hybridcars.com/technology-stories/lithium-ion-batteries.html

Raw blogged response to
Lithium Ion Batteries
at hybridcars.com

nano Lithium
By John Acheson on 2007-12-21 02:50:02The breakthrough that Stanford's Dr. Cui changes everything! This could be the breakthrough that everyone's been searching for. The main problem with Lithium batteries is that the small hairs or fibers that hold the electricity have to expand everytime they are charged and then contract everytime used. That's why you don't want to recharge you batteries often and rather let them go down all the way. The reason is that the small fibers start cracking after too many reps. This phenomenon works great in weight lifting because additional fibers grow after the muscle is torn and overall the unit gets stronger. For batteries it's just the opposite. The more charge cycle, them more cracks, and pretty soon you need a new cell phone, etc. Dr. Cui found a way to use nano fibers that I interpret as a much denser sponge with many more reps. So the result is a battery that can last 10 times longer. Why is that so important? Because automaking is capital intensive and automakers have to provide 100,000 mile warrranties these days. For them, that means making batteries that last 150,000 or 200,000 so there are no bad apples that pull a Pinto or Corvair black eye on the technology. So Dr. Cui's work will revolutionize the Lithium we have now, but cause another problem. The search and mining of new Lithium deposits to keep up the tremendous demand. Fortunately for the U.S., the Americas hold an estimated half of the world's Lithium.