Hi all
Check out this report from Stanford Uni. It sound like good news for the future :-)
http://news-service.stanford.edu/new...re-010908.html

More details can be found here : http://www.nature.com/nnano/journal/...17444DF5D723DB

for nordic readers : http://ing.dk/artikel/62962?highligh...Cnanoteknologi

For others and in short: New Li Ion battery developed and patented by american scientists. Should be recharged in 6 minutes and can hold up to 10 times the capacity and should be able to handle 20000 cycles.

We only have to wait a couple of years .....And of course we have to invent a very cheap way of producing the needed Nano crystals

Think automobiles....

Here is a very good interview with the inventor
http://www.gm-volt.com/2007/12/21/gm...-breakthrough/

We should ask Luke Peng (he is on RCU) - he works for Stanford University. He may have some insight into this...

Luke?

I have to admit to not reading the report, but A guy up here that is a heli guy said that toshiba had a li-ion that was able to do what you're discussing. I personally don't like to buy anything from Toshiba. That whole sub screw thing from the '80's. There are plenty of honorable companies out there. I did think that Lipo's were more advanced than Li-ION. I guess my assumption was wrong.

Tim

From physics point of view, battery capacity in general is proportional to the number of Li+ ions store in anode. The surface (charge) density saturated as battery is full charged. That's the limitation of current battery.... anode is a flat plate (plus other concern such as volume expansion). Nanotubes instead of a flat anode plate, increase surface area significantly while total battery voulme is about the same. The illustration b here gives you some general idea. http://www.nature.com/nnano/journal/...07.411_F1.html

Idea is simple, but the trick is how to make these nanotubes intact, line-up and minimize defects.

Luke