COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Researchers at the University of Maryland have invented a single tiny structure that includes all the components of a battery that they say could bring about the ultimate miniaturization of energy storage components. A billion nanopores could fit on a postage stamp. Credit: NEES, a DOE Energy Frontier Research CenterThe structure is called a nanopore: a tiny hole in a ceramic sheet that holds electrolyte to carry the electrical charge between nanotube electrodes at either end. The existing device is a test, but the bitsy battery performs well. First author Chanyuan Liu, a Ph.D. student in materials science & engineering, says that it can be fully charged in 12 minutes, and it can be recharged thousands of time.
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