SUPER IRON HIKES LIFE OF BATTERIES.Byline: Lauran Neergaard Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. A new generation of batteries that could run that pink bunny ragged may be on the horizon: They last 50 percent longer than today's batteries, thanks to a super-iron component that promises to be easy and affordable to manufacture. They're still under development, so don't look for them in local stores soon. But researchers at the Israel Institute of Technology invented super batteries that could run CD players and flashlights - and say the new batteries also could come in the rechargeable re·charge tr.v. re·charged, re·charg·ing, re·charg·es To charge again, especially to reenergize a storage battery. re forms needed to power video cameras, laptop computers, even electric cars. ``Improved batteries are needed,'' says Stuart Licht Licht (Light), subtitled "The Seven Days of the Week," is a cycle of seven operas composed by Karlheinz Stockhausen which, in total, lasts over 29 hours. Origin The project, originally titled Hikari , a chemistry professor who led the research team in trying a host of materials, from sulfur to tin, before they discovered an unusual form of iron boosts battery life. ``From the outside, the super-iron batteries look identical to conventional'' AA or AAA batteries, he said in an e-mail interview from Haifa. ``The difference is within, and in the much greater energy generated by the super-iron battery.'' The new batteries have 50 percent more energy than traditional batteries, Licht reports in Friday's edition of the journal Science. When he tested gadgets that drain batteries at extra-high rates, such as portable CD players, he found that the super iron also has extra conductivity, leading to an additional advantage. ``A conventional AAA-size alkaline battery Alkaline batteries are a type of power cell dependent upon the reaction between zinc and manganese dioxide (Zn/MnO2). Compared with original zinc-carbon batteries, while both produce approximately 1. may last only a few minutes at high-drain rate, but under the same conditions, a AAA AAA: see American Automobile Association. (Triple A) A common single-cell battery used in a myriad of electronic devices of all variety. Like its double A (AA) cousin, it provides 1.5 volts of DC power. When used in series, the voltage is multiplied. super-iron battery discharges for well over an hour,'' he said. Battery experts called the discovery promising. ``It's a significant advance scientifically,'' said Jack Winnick, a chemical engineer at the Georgia Institute of Technology Georgia Institute of Technology, in Atlanta, Ga.; coeducational; state supported; chartered 1885, opened 1888. It is a member school in the university system of Georgia. Significant among its facilities and programs are the Frank H. . ``I think the manufacturers will be intrigued by it. The market right now for these alkaline cells is so enormous . . . that if they could make a rapid replacement, I think they would.'' But Licht declined comment when asked if manufacturers already are interested in commercializing his invention. Some 60 billion alkaline batteries - the type most sold - are used worldwide each year. But their basic internal design hasn't changed much since the late 19th century: They typically contain a zinc anode anode (ăn`ōd), electrode through which current enters an electric device. In electrolysis, it is the positive electrode in the electrolytic cell. anode Terminal or electrode from which electrons leave a system. and a manganese dioxide manganese dioxide n. A black crystalline compound, MnO2, used as a depolarizer of dry-cell batteries and in textile dyeing. cathode. Batteries convert chemical energy into electrical energy through reactions at the anode and cathode. When active materials at either electrode electrode, terminal through which electric current passes between metallic and nonmetallic parts of an electric circuit. In most familiar circuits current is carried by metallic conductors, but in some circuits the current passes for some distance through a are used up, the battery dies. In most alkaline batteries, the cathode dries up long before the anode. CAPTION(S): Box Box: More juice, please A new type of battery is powered by a cathode made of an unusual form of iron that absorbs more electrons, boosting the battery's power and making its life span 50 percent longer than today's batteries. Source: Israel Institute of Technology Associated Press |
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