Author: Stephen Ornes
Date: April 7, 2011
Batteries have limits. When a battery is charged up and used, some
parts of the battery break down. For example, small cracks can form up inside
the battery, blocking the flow of an electric current. This shows why a
laptop battery will start to last less, sometimes even stopping to charge at
all. Batteries could survive longer if we could heal the cracks. And
that’s the idea for the new type of battery. In February, at the biggest
general science meeting in the United States, an engineer called Scott White
had an idea for a new invention: A battery that can heal itself. Scott White and his colleagues knew that the small cracks,
which often come up in the anode, can block the electric current and soon kill
a battery. To fight the cracks, they added something extra into the anode:
small plastic bubbles, or spheres, filled up with something called gallium
indium. When the anode develops the small cracks, some of these bubbles break
open and spill out the gallium indium. This material can heal up the crack, so
that the battery can work properly and conduct electricity again.
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