Innovation Anthology #618:
Two projects that Lockheed Martin is supporting at the University of Alberta promise to revolutionize technology for batteries and computer chips.
The computer research builds silicon wafers one atom at a time.
The second project incorporates carbon nanotubes into a lightweight battery that stores more power.
Brad Pietras of Lockheed Martin explains.
BRAD PIETRAS: Any battery has several parts but two of the key parts that are in it are called an anode and a cathode. And think of it this way. If you have a bag of marbles on one side that represent the charge that is the energy that needs to move. And on the other side you have a sponge that’s going to accept all the marbles. And what they’ve been doing here at the University of Albert is making a bag that holds more and more of these marbles or more and more charge. But in order for it to become a real viable battery, you need the other material that’s going to accept all the electrons or all the charge in order to get the energy to move from one side to the other. And that’s how it runs lights and motors and such. So what we were able to do is identify a technology, a material called porous silicon, that acts like a more dense sponge, that can absorb those electrons, and that enables then the carbon nanotube material developed here at the University of Alberta to become an actual viable battery.
The batteries will have applications in space and in electric cars.
Listen to the full interview with Brad Pietras at InnovationAnthology.com
I’M CHERYL CROUCHER
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Program Date: 2014-06-10