The new power source, which runs on liquid fuels, has at its core a thin layer of electrolyte materials sandwiched
between electrode materials.
Not exact matches
The new battery design is a hybrid
between flow batteries and conventional solid ones: In this version, while the
electrode material does not flow, it is composed of a similar semisolid, colloidal suspension of particles.
An early version created by Donald Sadoway, a
materials scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, and colleagues consisted of a top
electrode made from liquid magnesium, a bottom
electrode of antimony, and a molten salt electrolyte in
between.
To do this, they «chemically assembled a series of double - dot SETs by anchoring two gold nanoparticles
between the nanogap
electrodes with alkanedithiol molecules to form a self - assembled monolayer,» explained Yutaka Majima, a professor in the
Materials and Structures Laboratory at the Tokyo Institute of Technology.
«Although we made a lot of efforts, there are still small gaps
between the side walls of the
electrodes and the piezoelectric
materials.»
But the new analysis shows that the critical interface is actually
between two solid
materials: the
electrode itself, and a carbon coating used to improve its performance.
«We solved multiple problems simultaneously by changing out the
electrode, improving the electrolyte and creating good contact and communication
between the two
materials,» said Haile, who led the development of the concept, guided the experimental design, and supervised the research.
Though the value of m / e came out the same whatever the
material of the
electrode, the appearance of the discharge varied greatly; and as the measurements showed, the potential - difference
between the cathode and anode depended greatly upon the metal used for the
electrode; the pressure being the same in all cases.
They observed the metal atoms becoming charged ions, clustering with up to thousands of others into metal nanoparticles, and then migrating and forming a bridge
between the
electrodes at the opposite ends of the dielectric
material.
Core bridging or gap bridging is caused by
materials of combustion lodging
between electrode and the ground, causing the plug to short out.
The researchers fill the pores with electrolyte and sandwich the
material between electrodes.