Snippet: This is a "green" and safe battery technology, meaning it is environmentally non-toxic as well as being non-explosive. It is also very lightweight and incredibly cheap to produce...
Magnesium is the seventh most abundant metal on earth so it's an ideal material for making into batteries. It has a repoted energy density of 60 Wh/Kg. Unlike nickel-metal-hydride technology, this magnesium battery system demonstrates virtually NO self discharge! This means that once charged, the pack can be left in a charged state for long periods of time without damage. This should make the batteries very attractive to sales outlets as they can sit on a shelf indefinitely without harm unlike most current batteries which have a limited shelf life. Dr. Aurbach's team also reports the battery has an operating temperature of -20C to 60C and possesses a stable almost constant voltage of 1.2V per cell. This is hugely significant as it means that these cells should not suffer from reduced range in colder climates.
carlisimo says:
01:15 AM, 05/ 7/06
So... what's the technical difficulty that's kept them from becoming common already?
rsholland says:
06:55 AM, 05/ 7/06
Good question.
kurtamaxxxguy says:
09:00 AM, 05/ 8/06
The article did say the capacity of the magnesium batteries is behind that of NMHI and LI_ion, and that some more development work may find answer to that.
Also, there are the manufacturing issues to work out (building these in quanity may bring up other problems that need solving).
Very promising, though.
ateixeira says:
10:13 AM, 05/ 8/06
I would compare to Lithium Ion, the current state of the art, not NiMH. I'm sure there are cost hurdles but it's nice to see added pressure in the field of batteries. May the best format win.
mbadenhorst says:
09:48 AM, 07/15/06
As promising as it sounds, I wonder what is going on? Sona discontinued their attempts to acquire Idea One Inc? Why? It seems however if ZBB is still investing in the magnesium battery technology, but no news since 28 April 2006?