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Scientists from the Korean Institute of advanced technology have found a promising way to protect the batteries with silicon anodes from degradation.

For this they used a molecular "couplers" from polyrotaxane molecules, which do not allow silicon particles to the anode to fall apart. Batteries with a silicon anode can store several times more energy in comparison with existing analogues. Scientists say they are already working on a possible implementation of the invention with a large Korean manufacturer of rechargeable batteries.

A study published in the journal Science, briefly about it reports the Verge.

Common lithium-ion batteries consist of a lithium cathode and a graphite anode. During charging, lithium ions move to the anode during discharging in the opposite direction. But a graphite anode is a promising alternative to silicon. It can store several times more energy, but this material has a drawback: during charging, it expands several-fold and crack. Because of this, the life of these batteries drops sharply after tens of cycles of charge-discharge, which is clearly insufficient for widespread application.

Korean scientists have found a way to keep the microparticles of silicon in the anode. To do this they attached to the anode grid of polyrotaxane molecules. They consist of molecules, strands and "threaded" on it, molecules of the rings. Some rings were connected with threads. Thus, the silicon surface was created molecular sieve, which allowed it to expand, but pulled it back and thus not allowed to disintegrate.

Comparison of conventional silicon-based anode and an anode made of new technology

Sunghun Choi et al. / Science, 2017

This prototype battery with such an anode efficiency hardly decreases after more than a hundred cycles of charge-discharge. Despite the rather complicated structure of the anode, the scientists hope that they will be able to Refine its production technology for widespread adoption. They claim that they are already in partnership with an unnamed "major Korean manufacturer of batteries".

Scientists are constantly working to improve batteries, in particular of the anodes. In 2016 the American scientists replaced the graphite anode, but not on silicon, and modified nanoparticles of the fiber of mushrooms. Another group of scientists in the same year, proposed to use as the anode material, pollen, and Indian scientists have proposed to make the anodes of soot from candles.

Source: N+1

Previously, the company Atari made a game console, and now moved on the market put on electronics. The organization provided Speakerhat – cap column with two speakers.

Novelty baseball caps-column was the first product that was released as part of the line Atari Connected Life. Speakerhat built-in dual speakers high quality, and a microphone. He has the ability through connecting to other devices using Bluetooth.

Representatives of the company Atari explained that the cap column in the first place may be interested in "fitness enthusiasts". At the moment the release date and the price of the novelty is unknown.

Source: an

Old street lamp in London's Westminster appearance remained the same as in 1950-ies. But now you can open the little door in its base and to charge the electric car, writes Fast Company.

Unlike conventional chargers, the version proposed by the start-up Ubitricity, does not occupy unnecessary space, and since it relies on existing infrastructure, the system is cheaper and easier to install, and in London, just want to quickly increase the number of public charging stations.

"Currently, it can only do we, because no one else has these little chargers", says Knut, Heftier, co-founder of Ubitricity. All that the customer needs to do is buy a special charging cable. It is necessary to carry in the trunk, unlike the owners of electric cars in the US, where charging cables are built into the station.

"From the lamppost you can get up to 6 kWh of energy. This means that any Tesla car, even completely discharged, it will have charged up in the morning, if you leave it on overnight," says Heftier. The system is designed to slow the car's charging, and a startup trying to compete with stations fast charging like Ecotricity, electric car charge almost fully in 30 minutes.

Ubitricity has already upgraded 82 street lights in London and was scouting locations for the installation of dozens of others. The company hopes to raise funds to start a business in USA.