Tool Tech: Lithium-Ion’s Successor — Nanoscale Batteries
Monday, February 19th, 2007
A123 Systems claims to have made a significant breakthrough in battery performance recently, allowing the storage of more power in a smaller place while drastically reducing minimum recharge times — and hopefully opening the door for some really effective plug-in hybrid cars. But as Toolmonger, we’re looking at another application: power tools!
From A123 Systems’ website:
“Traditional li-ion technology uses active materials with particles that range in size between 5 and 20 microns. These large particles are required to minimize safety risks inherent to first-generation li-ion chemistries. A123 high power batteries are based on a safe and stable active material that can use particle sizes below 100 nanometers without adverse reaction. This new storage electrode enables much faster kinetics prodviding higher power than is possible from any other li-ion chemistry.”
Sounds pretty exciting. What’s really exciting, though, is the fact that GM recently announced their intention to use these batteries in vehciles — which means A123 should have the cash to push this concept through to completion.
And if that’s not exciting enough for you — imagine a cordless drill/driver significantly more powerful than existing high-end li-ion tools, but with a five minute recharge time. Wow.
A123 Systems [Corporate Site] [via]
