“Physician, heal thyself!” How many times have we heard of such a statement mentioned? Well, the very idea of a self-healing material has been mooted for quite some time already, but lately, such technology has been made affordable enough to be reproduced on a mass scale. When it comes to modern day devices, many people are concerned about the kind of battery life that these devices will offer, but what happens when there is a rechargeable battery down the road that is self-healing, which means they never need to be replaced? Researchers from Stanford University and Tsinghua University in Beijing, have worked together on a new kind of battery technology which ensures that the lithiated silicon materials within the batteries themselves are able to hold electrons a whole lot longer than existing batteries.
This is made possible thanks to the inclusion of a “self-healing” coating which will be able to repair the cracks within the battery, ensuring that all the materials within which make up the battery remain together. This results in the ability for the materials to be able to stash electrons for a whole lot longer compared to conventional batteries which rely on polymer binders. This would automatically translate to a prolonging of the battery’s life.
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