A technician casually came across the principle of a microwave owing to the accident that the pocket chocolate bar melted while fiddling with radar equipment. The story that penicillin was discovered is also famous because Alexander Fleming forgot to close the lid of the petri dish. Viagra, X-rays, the world's first plastics, etc., all accidental events led to inventions.
And now, it seems that a new case will be added to the list of major discoveries by chance. Mya Le Thai, a doctoral student at the University of California at Irvine (UCI), casually discovered the possibility of having a rechargeable battery used in a smartphone or laptop computer for as long as 400 years. The web media "GOOD" is reporting like this.
UCI's research team was working on developing and experimenting batteries using nanowires, but fine and fragile nanowires encountered the problem of deteriorating and breaking out when the number of charging cycles exceeds the limit It was. One charge cycle is the cycle until 100% of the battery capacity used up to 0% is used up to 100% charging. One day Thai went to cover gold nanowires with manganese dioxide from a mistake, and then covered with gel electrolyte of acrylic resin like Plexiglas (ie, the gel adhering to the hand was a mistake I got attached to the nanowire).
"When surprised what happened when she began charging and discharging the gel electrolyte capacitor," it is Mr. Reginald Penner, chemical director of UCI. "She says," It's going to break through 10,000 cycles and it seems we can still go. "A few days later it was" I reached 30,000 cycles. "That lasted for a month."
Current battery life of the smartphone is 300 to 500 cycles, so it is a great progress. If this technology is put into practical use, there is a possibility that a battery with 400 years will be realized.
GOOD finishes with a rather low-keyed comment that "It's a good thing for discovering from a mistake."
