(University of California – Davis) UC Davis researchers have proposed a radical new way of thinking about the chemical reactions between water and metal oxides, the most common minerals on Earth. The new paradigm could lead to a better understanding of corrosion and how toxic minerals leach from rocks and soil. It could also help in the development of “green” technology: new types of batteries, or catalysts for splitting water to produce hydrogen fuel.

(DOE/Savannah River National Laboratory) Developments by hydrogen researchers at the US Department of Energy’s Savannah River National Laboratory are paving the way for the successful development of portable power systems with capacities that far exceed the best batteries available today. SRNL’s advances in the use of alane, a lightweight material for storing hydrogen, may be the key that unlocks the development of portable fuel cell systems that meet the needs for both military and commercial portable power applications.

(DOE/Savannah River National Laboratory) Developments by hydrogen researchers at the US Department of Energy’s Savannah River National Laboratory are paving the way for the successful development of portable power systems with capacities that far exceed the best batteries available today. SRNL’s advances in the use of alane, a lightweight material for storing hydrogen, may be the key that unlocks the development of portable fuel cell systems that meet the needs for both military and commercial portable power applications.

(DOE/Savannah River National Laboratory) Developments by hydrogen researchers at the US Department of Energy’s Savannah River National Laboratory are paving the way for the successful development of portable power systems with capacities that far exceed the best batteries available today. SRNL’s advances in the use of alane, a lightweight material for storing hydrogen, may be the key that unlocks the development of portable fuel cell systems that meet the needs for both military and commercial portable power applications.

(Stevens Institute of Technology) While residents along the New Jersey and New York coasts rush to the store for batteries and bottled water, scientists at Stevens Institute of Technology are heading to the laboratory to help predict the impact of Hurricane Irene.

(New Jersey Institute of Technology) What do brilliantly colored glass, advanced batteries, and innovative technology for the regulation of brain functions have in common? They are nano-scale structures far smaller than the wavelengths of energy coursing through them in different regions of the electromagnetic spectrum, said NJIT Professor Haim Grebel. Investigating how light interacts with a wide range of materials in the world of the amazingly small has occupied much of Grebel’s career.

(DOE/Sandia National Laboratories) A new thin-film coating process for manufacturing thermal batteries used in nuclear weapons and other munitions that was invented at Sandia National Laboratories will be industrialized under a new corporate partnership with a Maryland company. The process could lead to create lighter batteries in a variety of shapes for future applications.

Lithium batteries hold a lot of energy for their size. That’s a good thing for powering a laptop, but bad if something were to go wrong. The reaction that releases electrical energy is unstable: it releases heat, and heat causes the reaction to go more quickly… which releases more heat… which causes more energy released, and so on. If the reaction isn’t controlled, all of the energy can be released in less than a second, leading to a fire or even an explosion.

Things like discharging too quickly, overcharging, punctures, and internal short circuits can all cause a battery to fail this way. So lithium battery manufacturers add several stages of safety measures to make sure nothing goes wrong. Some have even shot holes through a fully charged battery to make sure it wouldn’t explode.

But there have been a lot of problems in recent years with counterfeit batteries, which look like “proper” batteries from the outside (Dell, Apple, Sony, whatever) but are not made with the same safety measures. If you’re shopping for a battery and you find a price that’s too good to be true, it’s probably too good to be true!

Lithium polymer batteries are about the same as lithium ion batteries as far as safety is concerned. They operate with nearly the same chemistry, but using a gel rather than a liquid. Both types have vents to prevent buildup of excess pressure.