New Glass Electrolyte batteries

[Dyne]

Dunno if you guys caught this the other day on Reddit or wherever, but a team lead by John Goodenough (who co-developed the rechargeable Lithium Ion battery, and also has a great surname) and Maria Helena Braga have come up with a new design for a glass electrolyte battery cell at UT Austin. It's apparently the first solid state design that works below 60 degrees Celsius.

• Low cost (uses sodium rather than lithium)
  
• Fast charge/discharge
  
• Can operate as low as -20 degrees C, for when you are trapped on Hoth
  
• A long time will this battery live (more cycles than lithium-ion)
  
• You don't know the POWAH of the new battery (at least three times the energy density of a lithium ion battery).
  
• High capacity (one of the applications mentioned is electric vehicles)
  
• We all know the imperial probe droid had no self-destruct. Han merely shot it in the battery pack. This type should be less asplodey.
  

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20...131144.htm

[savagecreature]

So way totally cool

[kresty]

• We all know the imperial probe droid had no self-destruct.  Han merely shot it in the battery pack.  This type should be less asplodey.
  

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20...131144.htm

More density is always good - but I wonder about the explody part.  Seems to me that a fundamental problem with energy storage is that you want more energy in a tiny space.  And kinda by definition that means that there's more energy to be released when stuff goes wrong.  The no dendrites sounds helpful, but I imagine people will figure out other ways to mess them up!