Scientists are working on a new “flow” battery which can cool your system while charging

Our world is heavily dependent on electricity. During the last couple of years more and more mobile devices are becoming popular. Laptops, smartphones, etc. – all of them work on batteries. The latter is being used more and more frequently in the designing contemporary electric cars and hybrid technologies. All these factors make the developments of new technologies necessary. Scientists from IBM and the ETH Zurich university display new “flow” batteries that will simultaneously power and cool the systems they are connected to.

The so called redox flow battery uses liquid electrolytes which are typically used in great quantities to store energy. Harvard scholars have invented a similar battery which endures for more than 10 years with minimum degradation, making it extremely suitable for storing electricity from solar and wind generators. ETH Zurich and IBM, on the other hand, have found two liquids that contain liquid electrolytes and cooling agents that can disperse the heat from off a chip.

To create this first in the world battery with this size, they have used a 3D printer with which they have created microchannels feeding the system with electrolytes without needing much energy. When the electrodes move, the liquid is pressed against a membrane layer where the ions flow, generating energy. As a result of all this 1.4 W electricity per cm2 is being generated, and another 1 W remains to power the battery itself.

The advantages of this technology are that apart from supplying a system with electricity, it manages to cool it down as well, in comparison to conventional batteries. The engineers’ future plans are to increase the capacity of generated energy and implement this technology not only in chips but also in lasers with internal cooling, solar cells, which will be able to store energy on the cell itself, as well as in the development of even bigger flow batteries with cooling channels.

If you are looking for a new laptop, you may wish to browse through the currently available offers here: http://amzn.to/2n9KBjx

Subscribe
Notify of
guest
1 Comment
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Anna
3 years ago

Scientists have been working on a new flow battery that will quickly cool down your computer system in a matter of minutes. This is the same type of technology that refrigerators use to keep their systems cool. In fact, they used to make these systems for NASA. They were so effective that NASA ordered a huge shipment from Germany to put into space, but it was never sent. These types of systems are still being developed, and scientists are trying to figure out how to make them smaller, and cheaper for use on our computers.