Quantum batteries are theoretically awesome, practically non-existent

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http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2009/12/22dec9bgrgt4.jpg (https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/a-hubler/www/digitalquantumbatteries.pdf)Today's dose of overly ambitious tech research comes from the physics lab over at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (http://www.engadget.com/tag/universityofillinoisaturbana-champaign), in a proposal titled "Digital quantum batteries: Energy and information storage in nano vacuum tube arrays." It's like a who's who (http://www.engadget.com/2006/10/05/danish-scientists-achieve-advanced-quantum-teleportation/) of undelivered promises (http://www.engadget.com/tag/nanotubes) got together and united to form one giant and impossible dream (http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/30/rechargeable-zinc-air-batteries-promise-a-lot-well-see-if-they/), but it's one we'd prefer to believe in regardless. Aiming to improve battery performance by "orders of magnitude," the project's fundamental premise is that when capacitors -- and we're talking billions of them -- are taken to a small enough scale and packed to within 10nm of one another, quantum effects act to prevent energy loss. The projected result is a wonderful world of rapid recharges and storage of up to ten times the energy current lithium-ion packs can hold, as well as the potential for data retention. The only problem? It would take a year just to build a prototype, meaning we can expect market availability somewhere between a score from now and just prior to the underworld morphing into an ice rink.Quantum batteries are theoretically awesome, practically non-existent (http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/quantum-batteries-are-theoretically-awesome-practically-non-exi/) originally appeared on Engadget (http://www.engadget.com) on Tue, 22 Dec 2009 10:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds (http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/).


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