Grant Norton and student, David Mackay. Photo by WSU Photo Services.
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Nanoneedles |
Thin, super lithium-ion battery |
PULLMAN, Wash. Washington State University researchers have developed a new technology that could triple the capacity of lithium-ion batteries, which as anyone who owns a cell phone or laptop knows, can be frustratingly limiting.
Uttara Sahaym
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Norton and postdoctoral researcher Uttara Sahaym developed the novel material a little over a year ago while working on a project to mitigate tin whiskers, which are literally tiny whiskers that grow on tin-plated electronics. The whiskers, which can sometimes grow as long as 10 millimeters, are a pesky problem in microelectronics because they create short circuits that can cause catastrophic damage. Yet, despite the fact that tin whiskers have been causing problems for more than 60 years, researchers have been unable to come up with ways to entirely avoid them.