Rice University has managed to make yet another improvement for rechargeable batteries

Through US Army supported research, Rice University has seemed to come up with a breakthrough for rechargeable batteries. You see researchers have long known about the property of Silicon (Si) to hold more of a charge than conventional lithium batteries have had. The problem was, until now that is, that the silicon would rather rapidly degrade.

So, the research team headed up by Rice University, teamed up with other researchers around the world to try and solve this rapid degradation of the Si in the batteries. Their results are actually a huge step forward for battery makers the world round.

You see, the answer was to first create a nonowire made of silicon, then coat such with copper. This created an anode with which they could work with. The polymer that fills each battery can allow this Si-Cu wire to expand and contract without any degradation.

Now all that must be done is to make the process much more scalable for actual production. Once they have figured out how to successfully scale such, it will be ready for prime time. And this is yet another example of how government spending by the US Army can help research universities like Rice University to make developments in the field of rechargeable batteries, and oters too I might add.