1 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:07,760 Speaker 1: Welcome to text Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 2 00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:15,200 Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 3 00:00:15,320 --> 00:00:18,440 Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio 4 00:00:18,560 --> 00:00:22,119 Speaker 1: and I love all things tech and today it's time 5 00:00:22,160 --> 00:00:26,160 Speaker 1: for another classic episode of tech Stuff. This episode originally 6 00:00:26,239 --> 00:00:30,800 Speaker 1: published on June third, two thirteen. It is titled The 7 00:00:30,920 --> 00:00:34,879 Speaker 1: Evolution of Batteries. So we talk all about how batteries 8 00:00:34,880 --> 00:00:38,200 Speaker 1: were first invented and then how they changed over time. 9 00:00:38,440 --> 00:00:41,040 Speaker 1: I'm sure you'll get a real charge out of it. 10 00:00:41,479 --> 00:00:44,479 Speaker 1: Let's listen. You have something called Moore's law. That's that 11 00:00:44,600 --> 00:00:49,640 Speaker 1: observation that in general, microprocessors get twice the number of 12 00:00:49,640 --> 00:00:51,640 Speaker 1: discrete elements, or if you prefer to think of it 13 00:00:51,680 --> 00:00:54,720 Speaker 1: in another way, microprocessors tend to get twice as powerful 14 00:00:54,800 --> 00:00:59,200 Speaker 1: every two years or so. Yeah. This is not exponential growth, 15 00:00:59,240 --> 00:01:01,760 Speaker 1: which I have called it in previous episodes, by the way, 16 00:01:01,840 --> 00:01:04,080 Speaker 1: and people right in every time and call it. Take 17 00:01:04,120 --> 00:01:08,039 Speaker 1: us to task on it, which is important because it's 18 00:01:08,080 --> 00:01:11,600 Speaker 1: a misuse of the word exponential. I'm using it's a 19 00:01:11,640 --> 00:01:14,039 Speaker 1: colloquial use, but I do not want to go down 20 00:01:14,120 --> 00:01:16,760 Speaker 1: that hole again because I'm like you, guys, I get 21 00:01:16,800 --> 00:01:19,679 Speaker 1: irritated when people misuse words too. I just wish I 22 00:01:19,680 --> 00:01:22,240 Speaker 1: didn't do it as frequently myself, But anyway, it does 23 00:01:22,319 --> 00:01:26,760 Speaker 1: double every two years or so, and that's a phenomenal 24 00:01:26,760 --> 00:01:30,600 Speaker 1: amount of growth. We're talking about microprocessors that have billions 25 00:01:30,640 --> 00:01:32,880 Speaker 1: of discrete elements on them now, and they're all down 26 00:01:32,880 --> 00:01:35,959 Speaker 1: at the nano scale. So there's this amazing amount of 27 00:01:36,400 --> 00:01:41,080 Speaker 1: technology that's been poured into microprocessors, partially because More's Law 28 00:01:41,120 --> 00:01:44,760 Speaker 1: exists and companies strive to to keep up with it, 29 00:01:45,240 --> 00:01:47,560 Speaker 1: to maintain it because Moore's Law, as we know it 30 00:01:47,640 --> 00:01:50,200 Speaker 1: is not a real physical law. It's more of an observation, 31 00:01:50,320 --> 00:01:52,520 Speaker 1: and companies no one wants to be the company that 32 00:01:52,560 --> 00:01:55,240 Speaker 1: comes up and says, yeah, we can't do that. You know, 33 00:01:55,360 --> 00:01:58,040 Speaker 1: we just got bored. So it means that there's been 34 00:01:58,080 --> 00:02:00,240 Speaker 1: a lot of innovation in that space. But mean, while 35 00:02:00,640 --> 00:02:04,880 Speaker 1: on the battery front, batteries have in large part remain 36 00:02:05,000 --> 00:02:08,480 Speaker 1: more or less the same for decades. I mean, we've 37 00:02:08,520 --> 00:02:11,600 Speaker 1: we've seen improvements in battery life, we've seen improvements in 38 00:02:11,639 --> 00:02:16,000 Speaker 1: battery efficiency, but there have been some new technologies over 39 00:02:16,040 --> 00:02:20,240 Speaker 1: the past fifty years. But even so, it just hasn't 40 00:02:20,320 --> 00:02:24,200 Speaker 1: it hasn't at all kept up with the microprocessors assessor side. 41 00:02:24,240 --> 00:02:26,200 Speaker 1: This is also, by the way, this ties into our 42 00:02:26,600 --> 00:02:29,680 Speaker 1: episodes where we talked about things like the Singularity, where 43 00:02:29,720 --> 00:02:32,880 Speaker 1: we talk about how technology doesn't all progress at the 44 00:02:32,919 --> 00:02:36,280 Speaker 1: same rate. So while we do see devices getting more 45 00:02:36,280 --> 00:02:40,440 Speaker 1: and more sophisticated and powerful, uh, the power supplies aren't 46 00:02:40,520 --> 00:02:44,160 Speaker 1: keeping up with that trend. So it may be that 47 00:02:44,200 --> 00:02:47,360 Speaker 1: the singularity, if it is ever going to arrive, is 48 00:02:47,400 --> 00:02:50,360 Speaker 1: further off than what some people think simply because the 49 00:02:50,400 --> 00:02:54,400 Speaker 1: power side of the equation is lagging behind, uh, the 50 00:02:54,400 --> 00:03:00,200 Speaker 1: the technological sophistication side. So why is that. Well to 51 00:03:00,280 --> 00:03:03,240 Speaker 1: understand that, we kind of have to one talk about 52 00:03:03,280 --> 00:03:05,800 Speaker 1: what a battery is and to sort of look at 53 00:03:05,800 --> 00:03:08,160 Speaker 1: the history of the development of batteries and talk about 54 00:03:08,240 --> 00:03:12,400 Speaker 1: what exactly it does. Now on a very very basic level, 55 00:03:12,960 --> 00:03:17,560 Speaker 1: a battery is something that uses electrochemical reactions so that 56 00:03:17,639 --> 00:03:21,880 Speaker 1: you can guide electrons through a circuit and have it 57 00:03:21,960 --> 00:03:24,720 Speaker 1: do work. And that's about it. Yeah, that's that's really 58 00:03:24,760 --> 00:03:28,280 Speaker 1: all a battery is. And it's because there are certain 59 00:03:28,360 --> 00:03:32,240 Speaker 1: chemicals that when they have these reactions, they lose electrons 60 00:03:32,280 --> 00:03:34,440 Speaker 1: in the process, and if you are able to control 61 00:03:34,480 --> 00:03:37,680 Speaker 1: the flow of those electrons. Then you've got a battery. 62 00:03:37,800 --> 00:03:42,040 Speaker 1: So batteries date back possibly as long as though more 63 00:03:42,080 --> 00:03:46,160 Speaker 1: than two thousand years ago. Yeah, these these clay jars 64 00:03:46,160 --> 00:03:49,120 Speaker 1: found in modern day Iraq and you might have might 65 00:03:49,120 --> 00:03:51,720 Speaker 1: have heard of them called Bagdad batteries where um, yeah, 66 00:03:51,760 --> 00:03:54,360 Speaker 1: clay jars that contained an iron rod en cased in copper. 67 00:03:54,880 --> 00:03:57,280 Speaker 1: Tests suggest that the jars were at some point filled 68 00:03:57,320 --> 00:04:00,280 Speaker 1: with with with something acidic like vinegar or wine, and 69 00:04:00,520 --> 00:04:03,640 Speaker 1: modern day replicas have successfully created an electric charge. They 70 00:04:03,720 --> 00:04:05,600 Speaker 1: might have been used for something like a like any 71 00:04:05,600 --> 00:04:09,760 Speaker 1: anything from religious rituals and medicinal purposes to even electro plating. Right, 72 00:04:09,880 --> 00:04:12,640 Speaker 1: And if you've seen if you're a big MythBusters fan, 73 00:04:12,960 --> 00:04:15,320 Speaker 1: you may have seen an episode where they actually showed 74 00:04:15,360 --> 00:04:18,120 Speaker 1: these They created one of these batteries and then they 75 00:04:18,160 --> 00:04:20,000 Speaker 1: tried to see if they could get enough of a 76 00:04:20,080 --> 00:04:23,200 Speaker 1: charge for it to be detectable. Um, so that that's 77 00:04:23,240 --> 00:04:26,960 Speaker 1: an indication of that we were familiar with the fact 78 00:04:27,040 --> 00:04:32,520 Speaker 1: that certain materials, under certain circumstances could omit this weird energy. 79 00:04:32,640 --> 00:04:34,920 Speaker 1: Now at that time we weren't necessarily really aware of 80 00:04:34,960 --> 00:04:37,360 Speaker 1: all the things that could do, but that would change 81 00:04:37,400 --> 00:04:40,600 Speaker 1: as the centuries would pass. The next big date I 82 00:04:40,760 --> 00:04:46,680 Speaker 1: have is quite some time later, which is and that's 83 00:04:46,680 --> 00:04:52,360 Speaker 1: when Alessandro Volta, Count Alessandro Volta, he's only one. If 84 00:04:52,400 --> 00:04:55,279 Speaker 1: there were more than one, I would killt him. Oh, sorry, 85 00:04:55,600 --> 00:04:59,760 Speaker 1: you're talking about a nobility rank. So Count Volta created 86 00:05:00,400 --> 00:05:04,080 Speaker 1: a battery by stacking alternating layers of zinc. Lawrence just 87 00:05:04,160 --> 00:05:09,040 Speaker 1: checked out at this point zinc, brine, soaked cloth or paper, uh, 88 00:05:09,080 --> 00:05:11,720 Speaker 1: and silver. He used these alternating layers kind of a 89 00:05:11,760 --> 00:05:16,119 Speaker 1: sandwich here. And we call this a voltaic peel peel 90 00:05:16,200 --> 00:05:20,120 Speaker 1: because it's French and uh and and voltaic after volta, yes, 91 00:05:20,560 --> 00:05:24,120 Speaker 1: and so uh. The this this peel or pile if 92 00:05:24,120 --> 00:05:27,800 Speaker 1: you prefer, because it is a pile oh stuff. When 93 00:05:27,800 --> 00:05:31,039 Speaker 1: you put it in this this configuration, you start getting 94 00:05:31,080 --> 00:05:34,920 Speaker 1: these chemical reactions that emit electrons. And you could make 95 00:05:34,920 --> 00:05:38,200 Speaker 1: the stack taller and taller to get more electrons a 96 00:05:38,240 --> 00:05:42,880 Speaker 1: stronger flow of current through this peel. But in order 97 00:05:42,920 --> 00:05:44,800 Speaker 1: to do that, you actually had to stack it up 98 00:05:44,839 --> 00:05:47,520 Speaker 1: so high that eventually the weight from the top would 99 00:05:47,560 --> 00:05:50,040 Speaker 1: start to squish the layers on the bottom, which would 100 00:05:50,080 --> 00:05:53,640 Speaker 1: kind of make the brine soak out. And that would 101 00:05:53,800 --> 00:05:57,120 Speaker 1: make it less effective, and also the metal itself would 102 00:05:57,160 --> 00:06:00,560 Speaker 1: start to corrode fairly quickly from the brine and movement 103 00:06:01,120 --> 00:06:04,640 Speaker 1: the electrons. Right. It just wasn't wasn't a practical way 104 00:06:04,760 --> 00:06:08,359 Speaker 1: of generating electricity, but it showed the premise and it 105 00:06:08,440 --> 00:06:11,839 Speaker 1: gave scientists the idea of there's something here and if 106 00:06:11,920 --> 00:06:14,360 Speaker 1: we can figure out other ways of generating the same 107 00:06:14,440 --> 00:06:16,400 Speaker 1: kind of energy, we might be able to harness it 108 00:06:16,480 --> 00:06:19,560 Speaker 1: for something. Skipping ahead, I mean there there are lots 109 00:06:19,600 --> 00:06:24,000 Speaker 1: of different developments in this technology. I have two specific ones. 110 00:06:24,040 --> 00:06:26,600 Speaker 1: I think you have a few more. The next really 111 00:06:26,600 --> 00:06:31,400 Speaker 1: effective one um was eighty six. Yeah, John Frederick Daniel, 112 00:06:31,480 --> 00:06:34,800 Speaker 1: who was an English physicist. He created what we now 113 00:06:34,839 --> 00:06:38,839 Speaker 1: call the Daniel cell, which was a you take a 114 00:06:38,880 --> 00:06:41,240 Speaker 1: glass jar and on the bottom of the glass jar 115 00:06:41,320 --> 00:06:43,800 Speaker 1: you put on in a copper plate, so copper plate 116 00:06:43,800 --> 00:06:45,400 Speaker 1: in the bottom of the glass jar, and there's a 117 00:06:45,400 --> 00:06:47,880 Speaker 1: wire from the copper plate that comes out of the jar. 118 00:06:48,600 --> 00:06:52,880 Speaker 1: Then you pour copper sulfate on top of that copper 119 00:06:52,920 --> 00:06:56,680 Speaker 1: plate to about the halfway point of the jar. Then 120 00:06:56,720 --> 00:07:00,640 Speaker 1: you suspend a zinc plate in the jar, and then 121 00:07:00,680 --> 00:07:05,039 Speaker 1: you pour zinc sulfate solution on top of the zinc plate. Now, 122 00:07:05,160 --> 00:07:09,479 Speaker 1: zinc sulfate is less dense than copper sulfate, so zinc 123 00:07:09,520 --> 00:07:12,520 Speaker 1: sulfate will float on top of copper sulfate. If you've 124 00:07:12,520 --> 00:07:15,480 Speaker 1: ever played with liquids of different densities that had different colors, 125 00:07:15,720 --> 00:07:17,480 Speaker 1: then you know what I'm talking about. You can see 126 00:07:17,520 --> 00:07:20,760 Speaker 1: that actual level of division. Yeah, it's actually it's one 127 00:07:20,760 --> 00:07:22,400 Speaker 1: of my favorite things. I just think it's super cool 128 00:07:22,440 --> 00:07:24,640 Speaker 1: when it When I see that, I'm easily amused, I 129 00:07:24,680 --> 00:07:28,400 Speaker 1: admit it. But anyway, you also have a wire coming 130 00:07:28,480 --> 00:07:32,720 Speaker 1: from the zinc plate uh and exiting the jar. So 131 00:07:32,880 --> 00:07:35,600 Speaker 1: a wire attached to this would become that that zinc 132 00:07:35,640 --> 00:07:38,440 Speaker 1: plate becomes the negative terminal that's where the electrons are 133 00:07:38,440 --> 00:07:41,760 Speaker 1: flowing from, and the copper plate becomes the positive terminal 134 00:07:41,800 --> 00:07:44,560 Speaker 1: that's where electrons are flowing too. And so if you 135 00:07:44,600 --> 00:07:47,840 Speaker 1: were to connect the two wires together, it would very 136 00:07:47,920 --> 00:07:50,600 Speaker 1: quickly burn out this battery. But if you were to 137 00:07:50,760 --> 00:07:53,880 Speaker 1: connect it to a circuit, it could actually do uh, 138 00:07:53,920 --> 00:07:55,920 Speaker 1: it could or a load as we call it, It It 139 00:07:55,960 --> 00:08:00,200 Speaker 1: could actually do work. So again, not terribly practical. It 140 00:08:00,200 --> 00:08:04,080 Speaker 1: it was useful for anything that was stationary. But you 141 00:08:04,080 --> 00:08:07,360 Speaker 1: know you're talking about a liquid battery here. So it's 142 00:08:07,360 --> 00:08:09,240 Speaker 1: not something that you could easily carry around or put 143 00:08:09,280 --> 00:08:12,240 Speaker 1: into portable electronics, right right, Yeah, and there's there's a 144 00:08:12,280 --> 00:08:15,600 Speaker 1: lot of a lot more elegant ways of getting that 145 00:08:15,720 --> 00:08:18,440 Speaker 1: that electrol kind of solution of of you know, just 146 00:08:18,440 --> 00:08:22,440 Speaker 1: just a charged molecule then yeah, yeah, And it wouldn't 147 00:08:22,440 --> 00:08:25,120 Speaker 1: be until we developed dry cell battery technology that we 148 00:08:25,240 --> 00:08:29,559 Speaker 1: started to find practical ways of using it in portable means, 149 00:08:29,640 --> 00:08:32,120 Speaker 1: you know. And even then, you know, the batteries weren't 150 00:08:32,160 --> 00:08:34,800 Speaker 1: small enough to use in what we consider portable electronics today, 151 00:08:34,840 --> 00:08:37,599 Speaker 1: but you could move it around. Uh. The kind of 152 00:08:37,679 --> 00:08:41,960 Speaker 1: Daniel cells that that John Frederick Daniel created were useful 153 00:08:41,960 --> 00:08:46,000 Speaker 1: for different technologies, things like telephones. It was stuff that 154 00:08:46,280 --> 00:08:48,559 Speaker 1: back then you did not carry around. I don't know 155 00:08:48,600 --> 00:08:51,520 Speaker 1: if you kids know this, but telephones used to be 156 00:08:51,559 --> 00:08:55,360 Speaker 1: these things that were extremely stationary. It's only recently that 157 00:08:55,400 --> 00:08:59,400 Speaker 1: we started carrying them around. Uh. Anyway, that's the kind 158 00:08:59,400 --> 00:09:02,079 Speaker 1: of battery that became popular for that. Uh. Now, did 159 00:09:02,080 --> 00:09:03,640 Speaker 1: you have any other ones who wanted to talk about 160 00:09:03,640 --> 00:09:07,440 Speaker 1: before we move onto the basics of batteries. Rechargeable batteries, 161 00:09:07,679 --> 00:09:10,920 Speaker 1: The science for that started um started with research around 162 00:09:10,960 --> 00:09:14,200 Speaker 1: eighteen fifty nine or so when a French physicist, Gaston 163 00:09:14,360 --> 00:09:19,120 Speaker 1: Plant invented the lead acid cell um and that that 164 00:09:19,160 --> 00:09:21,640 Speaker 1: was a that was a precursor to to modern day 165 00:09:21,640 --> 00:09:25,239 Speaker 1: car batteries. So there you have, you know, the discovery 166 00:09:25,280 --> 00:09:28,120 Speaker 1: that this chemical reaction that takes place within a battery, 167 00:09:28,400 --> 00:09:30,640 Speaker 1: you get compounds that form out of it, and it 168 00:09:30,679 --> 00:09:35,000 Speaker 1: makes the battery over time less effective. That's why batteries die. Eventually, 169 00:09:35,080 --> 00:09:38,920 Speaker 1: the active elements that would create the flow of electrons 170 00:09:39,320 --> 00:09:42,599 Speaker 1: end up combining with other stuff and for the purposes 171 00:09:42,679 --> 00:09:47,240 Speaker 1: of of passing a current through a circuit, they become 172 00:09:47,240 --> 00:09:50,360 Speaker 1: a nert. Yeah. Yeah, something either wears out or um 173 00:09:50,440 --> 00:09:54,320 Speaker 1: or maybe the the anode or cathode could could dissolve 174 00:09:54,400 --> 00:09:57,320 Speaker 1: in the solution. Right, you just essentially what it means 175 00:09:57,400 --> 00:09:59,680 Speaker 1: is that you run out of the stuff you need 176 00:10:00,000 --> 00:10:02,080 Speaker 1: in order to make it to make this go, right, 177 00:10:02,240 --> 00:10:06,920 Speaker 1: and so what what was it? Plant believe? Yes, what 178 00:10:07,000 --> 00:10:10,840 Speaker 1: Plant discovered was that for some kinds of solutions, if 179 00:10:10,840 --> 00:10:14,600 Speaker 1: you were to pass electric current through the system as 180 00:10:14,600 --> 00:10:19,160 Speaker 1: opposed to siphoning it off, you could reverse this process 181 00:10:19,240 --> 00:10:21,400 Speaker 1: and yeah, and create a battery that can be used 182 00:10:21,440 --> 00:10:24,079 Speaker 1: more than once. Right Now, this does not work for 183 00:10:24,120 --> 00:10:27,000 Speaker 1: all batteries, which is why you can't just throw any 184 00:10:27,280 --> 00:10:30,320 Speaker 1: regular battery into a recharger and expect it to come 185 00:10:30,320 --> 00:10:33,760 Speaker 1: out fine. If you did that to a to a 186 00:10:33,920 --> 00:10:36,360 Speaker 1: you know, to adrist cell or something like that, mostly 187 00:10:36,480 --> 00:10:39,440 Speaker 1: just explode. Right that these are has to be batteries 188 00:10:39,440 --> 00:10:42,679 Speaker 1: that are using specific uh compounds in it for it 189 00:10:42,720 --> 00:10:45,560 Speaker 1: to have this this reversible reaction, because not all compounds 190 00:10:45,559 --> 00:10:48,600 Speaker 1: will reverse some of them once they're done, they're done 191 00:10:48,720 --> 00:10:50,720 Speaker 1: and battery. We will talk about that a little bit 192 00:10:50,760 --> 00:10:53,240 Speaker 1: a little bit later, but but let's let's talk about 193 00:10:53,280 --> 00:10:57,440 Speaker 1: how how exactly this this circuitry works. Okay, So, if 194 00:10:57,480 --> 00:10:59,439 Speaker 1: you've ever looked at a battery, you've seen that there's 195 00:11:00,040 --> 00:11:02,400 Speaker 1: a side that is labeled as a plus and one 196 00:11:02,440 --> 00:11:05,480 Speaker 1: that's labeled as a minus. So positive and negative. If 197 00:11:05,520 --> 00:11:07,679 Speaker 1: you're looking at like a nine volt battery, then they're 198 00:11:07,720 --> 00:11:10,200 Speaker 1: next to each other. If you're looking at double a's 199 00:11:10,280 --> 00:11:12,040 Speaker 1: or whatever, then it's on one end and the other. 200 00:11:12,559 --> 00:11:16,640 Speaker 1: So the negative end the that's where the electrons flow 201 00:11:16,760 --> 00:11:20,920 Speaker 1: out of. That's the electrons flow from that end through 202 00:11:20,960 --> 00:11:24,440 Speaker 1: a circuit and into the positive end. Uh. Now we 203 00:11:24,480 --> 00:11:27,920 Speaker 1: know that you know the uh, the opposite charges attract, 204 00:11:28,000 --> 00:11:30,120 Speaker 1: so that's why the negative wants to get to the positive. 205 00:11:30,559 --> 00:11:35,320 Speaker 1: And inside the the the battery itself, there is a 206 00:11:35,400 --> 00:11:38,800 Speaker 1: chemical called or a compound called an electro light. Now 207 00:11:38,800 --> 00:11:41,840 Speaker 1: the electro light has a very important job. It blocks 208 00:11:41,880 --> 00:11:44,400 Speaker 1: those electrons from just passing from the negative side to 209 00:11:44,400 --> 00:11:48,439 Speaker 1: the positive side directly direct That would burn, burn everything out. Yeah, 210 00:11:48,520 --> 00:11:50,880 Speaker 1: that you wouldn't have You wouldn't be able to power anything. 211 00:11:50,960 --> 00:11:53,000 Speaker 1: The battery would just you would just have a chemical 212 00:11:53,080 --> 00:11:55,920 Speaker 1: reaction inside a canister and it would be dead within 213 00:11:56,360 --> 00:12:01,000 Speaker 1: however long it took for those reactions. Yeah. Um. So 214 00:12:01,040 --> 00:12:04,800 Speaker 1: it does allow ions to pass through, but not electrons, 215 00:12:05,320 --> 00:12:08,439 Speaker 1: and that becomes important. So the negative terminal is connected 216 00:12:08,440 --> 00:12:12,480 Speaker 1: to something that's called the anode, the positive terminal is 217 00:12:12,480 --> 00:12:15,720 Speaker 1: connected to what we call the cathode, and these together 218 00:12:15,920 --> 00:12:19,240 Speaker 1: are the electrodes of a battery. Then you've got the 219 00:12:19,280 --> 00:12:21,959 Speaker 1: separator between the anode and the cathode that's presenting that's 220 00:12:21,960 --> 00:12:24,200 Speaker 1: preventing those two sides from reacting to each other. And 221 00:12:24,280 --> 00:12:26,760 Speaker 1: you have the electro light that allows the electric charge 222 00:12:26,800 --> 00:12:30,199 Speaker 1: to flow between cathode and anode, allowing the ions to 223 00:12:30,240 --> 00:12:33,120 Speaker 1: pass through. While making sure the electrons don't. And then 224 00:12:33,160 --> 00:12:35,160 Speaker 1: you have a collector, which is the part of the 225 00:12:35,160 --> 00:12:37,400 Speaker 1: battery that conducts the charge to the outside of the 226 00:12:37,400 --> 00:12:40,720 Speaker 1: battery and through whatever the load is, the electronic load, 227 00:12:41,080 --> 00:12:45,240 Speaker 1: so the circuit um. So within that anode side, the 228 00:12:45,280 --> 00:12:49,439 Speaker 1: negative side, the chemical reaction that takes place is called oxidation. 229 00:12:49,559 --> 00:12:53,920 Speaker 1: It's an oxidation reaction. This ends up releasing ions, and 230 00:12:54,080 --> 00:12:56,959 Speaker 1: the ions move through the electro light to combine on 231 00:12:57,679 --> 00:13:01,400 Speaker 1: UH the other side, and then you've got uh the 232 00:13:01,440 --> 00:13:05,440 Speaker 1: release of electrons that go through the circuitry. On the 233 00:13:05,480 --> 00:13:09,160 Speaker 1: catholic side, you've got the reduction reaction. That's where the 234 00:13:09,200 --> 00:13:13,239 Speaker 1: catholic material and the ions UH combine with the electrons 235 00:13:13,280 --> 00:13:17,440 Speaker 1: that are coming in through the circuit that they form 236 00:13:17,520 --> 00:13:20,960 Speaker 1: a new compound. And so essentially you've got the anode 237 00:13:20,960 --> 00:13:24,240 Speaker 1: freeing up electrons, the cathode accepting electrons, and the electrons 238 00:13:24,280 --> 00:13:27,200 Speaker 1: do work along the way. So if you were to 239 00:13:27,240 --> 00:13:30,840 Speaker 1: actually connect a wire from the negative terminal to the 240 00:13:30,840 --> 00:13:34,760 Speaker 1: positive terminal, you would allow that that pathway to be 241 00:13:34,840 --> 00:13:36,920 Speaker 1: open and it would just start to burn up that 242 00:13:36,960 --> 00:13:42,800 Speaker 1: battery pretty quickly. Don't do that. It's a waste of batteries. 243 00:13:42,840 --> 00:13:45,120 Speaker 1: It's going to heat up that wire. It doesn't do 244 00:13:45,200 --> 00:13:48,800 Speaker 1: anything other than kill your battery. But but that's what happens. 245 00:13:48,840 --> 00:13:51,800 Speaker 1: It's so when you've got it plugged into something, whenever 246 00:13:51,840 --> 00:13:54,679 Speaker 1: you turn the switch on to whatever it is, whether 247 00:13:54,679 --> 00:13:58,920 Speaker 1: it's a you know, a lightsaber or a phaser. You know, 248 00:13:59,040 --> 00:14:02,719 Speaker 1: I allow all lines of science fiction toys for batteries. 249 00:14:03,040 --> 00:14:05,080 Speaker 1: But whenever you turn it on, it opens up that 250 00:14:05,120 --> 00:14:08,160 Speaker 1: circuit and that allows the electrons to flow through. And 251 00:14:08,520 --> 00:14:11,040 Speaker 1: when you turn it off, then the one of the 252 00:14:11,040 --> 00:14:15,079 Speaker 1: gates gets closed essentially, and you no longer the connection 253 00:14:15,120 --> 00:14:18,600 Speaker 1: is no longer there. So the battery stops the chemical reaction. 254 00:14:18,640 --> 00:14:20,520 Speaker 1: It has to have that pathway open for the chemical 255 00:14:20,520 --> 00:14:24,960 Speaker 1: reaction to keep going. Now, there are several different basic 256 00:14:25,120 --> 00:14:28,000 Speaker 1: types of batteries that are out there, and we're just 257 00:14:28,040 --> 00:14:30,000 Speaker 1: going to cover a couple of them, and we're covering 258 00:14:30,000 --> 00:14:33,640 Speaker 1: them based upon the stuff that's inside them, right, because 259 00:14:33,640 --> 00:14:35,760 Speaker 1: there's a whole bunch of different substances that you can 260 00:14:35,840 --> 00:14:39,840 Speaker 1: use to create these reactions. Like like we said, so yeah, so, 261 00:14:39,840 --> 00:14:43,320 Speaker 1: so one basic type is the is alkaline batteries. Uh, 262 00:14:43,360 --> 00:14:47,080 Speaker 1: the anode in alkaline batteries tends to be zinc powder. 263 00:14:47,280 --> 00:14:49,280 Speaker 1: So the anode again is that negative side that's where 264 00:14:49,280 --> 00:14:52,840 Speaker 1: the electrons are coming from. The cathode side has uh, 265 00:14:53,000 --> 00:14:58,840 Speaker 1: typically manganese dioxide, and the electrolyte is typically potassium hydroxide. 266 00:14:58,840 --> 00:15:00,920 Speaker 1: These are the kind of batteries that you typically find 267 00:15:01,000 --> 00:15:03,760 Speaker 1: in double a's, C and D batteries, right, and these 268 00:15:03,760 --> 00:15:06,360 Speaker 1: are all examples of This is an example of dry 269 00:15:06,360 --> 00:15:10,120 Speaker 1: cell batteries. Yes, which dry cell batteries. One of the 270 00:15:10,120 --> 00:15:11,920 Speaker 1: big benefits of those that you don't have to worry 271 00:15:11,960 --> 00:15:15,080 Speaker 1: about liquid slashing around inside the battery, so that allows 272 00:15:15,120 --> 00:15:17,720 Speaker 1: it to be used in lots of applications. You know, 273 00:15:17,760 --> 00:15:21,160 Speaker 1: anything that's liquid obviously you can't shake around too much 274 00:15:21,240 --> 00:15:23,160 Speaker 1: or else just gonna disrupt it and you're not gonna 275 00:15:23,200 --> 00:15:26,680 Speaker 1: have a working battery. For they're more they're more more volatile. Yeah, 276 00:15:26,760 --> 00:15:28,680 Speaker 1: you want that, you want that in a very uh 277 00:15:29,120 --> 00:15:33,200 Speaker 1: stationary position. Then you've got zinc carbon batteries. Uh. These 278 00:15:33,240 --> 00:15:36,680 Speaker 1: have an anode that has that's a zinc obviously uh, 279 00:15:36,720 --> 00:15:39,040 Speaker 1: and then you've got the manganese dioxide cathode. But the 280 00:15:39,080 --> 00:15:42,720 Speaker 1: electrolyte in this case is often either ammonium chloride or 281 00:15:42,800 --> 00:15:45,920 Speaker 1: zinc chloride. These are often found in triple A, double A, 282 00:15:46,000 --> 00:15:49,160 Speaker 1: C and D dry cell batteries. Then you've got lithium 283 00:15:49,160 --> 00:15:54,480 Speaker 1: ion batteries. These are the ones that we find in laptops, smartphones, cameras, 284 00:15:54,560 --> 00:15:58,080 Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. They are rechargeable batteries and they 285 00:15:58,320 --> 00:16:02,440 Speaker 1: have different materials in them. Uh uh. One common version 286 00:16:02,520 --> 00:16:06,600 Speaker 1: of lithium ion batteries uses a carbon note and a 287 00:16:06,720 --> 00:16:11,320 Speaker 1: lithium cobalt oxide cathode and uh and yeah, these are 288 00:16:11,360 --> 00:16:13,760 Speaker 1: the ones that we use when we're recharging our our 289 00:16:13,840 --> 00:16:18,200 Speaker 1: various electronics very frequently anyway. Then you've got lead acid batteries. 290 00:16:18,200 --> 00:16:20,240 Speaker 1: These are the ones that you often find in cars. 291 00:16:20,600 --> 00:16:23,880 Speaker 1: These are more heavy duty, right, they are more volatile. 292 00:16:23,920 --> 00:16:28,520 Speaker 1: They do include liquid, Yeah, they include their their their 293 00:16:28,560 --> 00:16:31,240 Speaker 1: electrolyte tends to be sulfuric acid. This is one of 294 00:16:31,280 --> 00:16:33,040 Speaker 1: the reasons why you want to be really careful with 295 00:16:33,080 --> 00:16:36,080 Speaker 1: car batteries because the materials inside them can be very 296 00:16:36,080 --> 00:16:40,560 Speaker 1: caustic and and they can damage you, your stuff, your car. 297 00:16:40,760 --> 00:16:42,440 Speaker 1: That's why you know you've got to be really careful 298 00:16:42,480 --> 00:16:46,360 Speaker 1: with these things. Um. They tend to have uh, lead 299 00:16:46,360 --> 00:16:50,880 Speaker 1: dioxide and metallic lead as their electrodes. So yeah, the 300 00:16:50,880 --> 00:16:53,800 Speaker 1: rechargeable battery we've already talked about. That's the kind where 301 00:16:53,960 --> 00:16:56,680 Speaker 1: if you put the electric current through the battery, you 302 00:16:56,720 --> 00:17:02,640 Speaker 1: reverse this uh, this chemical reaction. Uh. It depends upon 303 00:17:02,680 --> 00:17:06,320 Speaker 1: what that rechargeable battery is made from, whether how effective 304 00:17:06,359 --> 00:17:10,320 Speaker 1: this this process is right, because there's some kinds of 305 00:17:10,400 --> 00:17:16,720 Speaker 1: rechargeable batteries that have well they have a memory, and 306 00:17:16,760 --> 00:17:19,840 Speaker 1: that memory is not a good one. The memory effect 307 00:17:19,880 --> 00:17:22,320 Speaker 1: is what I'm talking about. So I don't know how 308 00:17:22,359 --> 00:17:25,320 Speaker 1: many of you are familiar with this, but if you've 309 00:17:25,320 --> 00:17:28,520 Speaker 1: ever heard someone say that before you recharge your device, 310 00:17:28,560 --> 00:17:32,639 Speaker 1: you should make sure that it's completely that the current 311 00:17:32,720 --> 00:17:37,200 Speaker 1: charges completely out. This was due to some some older 312 00:17:37,240 --> 00:17:39,840 Speaker 1: types of batteries that have been mostly replaced by lithium 313 00:17:39,880 --> 00:17:45,200 Speaker 1: ion batteries. Nickel cadmium is the main culprit here. So 314 00:17:45,280 --> 00:17:48,159 Speaker 1: the problem that some people notice with nickel cadmium is 315 00:17:48,200 --> 00:17:50,879 Speaker 1: that if you used a nickel cadmium battery for a 316 00:17:50,880 --> 00:17:54,040 Speaker 1: while and then you recharged it before you had completely 317 00:17:54,080 --> 00:17:58,320 Speaker 1: discharged the original charge, it wouldn't hold as much of 318 00:17:58,320 --> 00:18:01,360 Speaker 1: a charge the next time. So let's say that I've 319 00:18:01,400 --> 00:18:04,119 Speaker 1: got a device that has a nickel cadmium battery in 320 00:18:04,160 --> 00:18:07,760 Speaker 1: it and I run it down to about left like 321 00:18:07,840 --> 00:18:10,119 Speaker 1: it's it only has charge left, and I decided to 322 00:18:10,160 --> 00:18:14,400 Speaker 1: recharge it. Well, now it's new maximum charge is more 323 00:18:14,480 --> 00:18:17,600 Speaker 1: like eight of what it used to be because I 324 00:18:17,600 --> 00:18:21,800 Speaker 1: didn't let it go all. It remembers that but doesn't 325 00:18:21,920 --> 00:18:26,879 Speaker 1: let me actually consume that power anymore. So, yeah, that 326 00:18:27,000 --> 00:18:30,280 Speaker 1: was a problem. Now most batteries now don't have that issue. 327 00:18:30,320 --> 00:18:33,360 Speaker 1: I mean, there's still a minor memory effect in some 328 00:18:33,400 --> 00:18:36,960 Speaker 1: rechargeable batteries, but it's not nearly as dramatic as it 329 00:18:37,359 --> 00:18:39,680 Speaker 1: the older batteries were, right, So so yeah, so if 330 00:18:39,720 --> 00:18:42,040 Speaker 1: you are using the lithium ion battery and someone tells 331 00:18:42,080 --> 00:18:44,320 Speaker 1: you that thing, you can you can tell them that 332 00:18:44,359 --> 00:18:47,200 Speaker 1: we told you no, no, not as big a deal. 333 00:18:47,800 --> 00:18:51,280 Speaker 1: And another interesting thing about batteries is what happens if 334 00:18:51,320 --> 00:18:54,800 Speaker 1: you place them in series versus in parallel. So in 335 00:18:54,880 --> 00:18:57,199 Speaker 1: series it sounds kind of you know, is what it is. 336 00:18:57,280 --> 00:18:59,400 Speaker 1: You've you've got them hooked up so that they are 337 00:18:59,800 --> 00:19:02,840 Speaker 1: all the charges running through one and then another and 338 00:19:02,880 --> 00:19:07,560 Speaker 1: then another yea in the sequence exactly. And uh, if 339 00:19:07,560 --> 00:19:11,439 Speaker 1: you do that, you increase the voltage of the output. Now, 340 00:19:11,480 --> 00:19:14,479 Speaker 1: if you put them in parallel, you increase the current. 341 00:19:15,040 --> 00:19:17,520 Speaker 1: Now you might wonder what's the differences voltage and current 342 00:19:17,560 --> 00:19:19,800 Speaker 1: if you're if you're not really familiar with electronics. I 343 00:19:19,920 --> 00:19:23,919 Speaker 1: always have to look this up because I I, I 344 00:19:23,920 --> 00:19:28,160 Speaker 1: always second guess myself. But voltage measures the energy per 345 00:19:28,240 --> 00:19:31,160 Speaker 1: unit charge. And you can think of that is it's 346 00:19:31,200 --> 00:19:34,600 Speaker 1: how strong the electrons are pushed through a circuit. So 347 00:19:34,960 --> 00:19:38,160 Speaker 1: think of it like water pressure, you know, through a hose. 348 00:19:38,240 --> 00:19:40,520 Speaker 1: So the greater the water pressure, the harder that water 349 00:19:40,600 --> 00:19:43,960 Speaker 1: is being pushed through the hose. That's essentially your voltage, 350 00:19:43,960 --> 00:19:47,000 Speaker 1: it's you know. And then current is the rate at 351 00:19:47,000 --> 00:19:51,359 Speaker 1: which electric charge passes through a circuit. Now, voltage will 352 00:19:51,359 --> 00:19:54,920 Speaker 1: stay constant, the voltage output will stay constant based upon 353 00:19:55,000 --> 00:19:57,199 Speaker 1: whatever kind of battery you have or whether or not 354 00:19:57,240 --> 00:20:00,439 Speaker 1: they're in series. Uh. But otherwise it it's going to 355 00:20:00,480 --> 00:20:04,639 Speaker 1: remain the same. Current, however, will vary depending upon the 356 00:20:04,720 --> 00:20:08,680 Speaker 1: load you place it. Uh, you place on it. So 357 00:20:09,400 --> 00:20:13,160 Speaker 1: and that can, like the resistance of a wire, can 358 00:20:13,280 --> 00:20:17,760 Speaker 1: affect what the current is. So current is variable. Voltage 359 00:20:17,840 --> 00:20:21,040 Speaker 1: is not. And uh, apart from the fact that if 360 00:20:21,080 --> 00:20:22,840 Speaker 1: you put them in series, you increase the voltage. But 361 00:20:22,920 --> 00:20:27,159 Speaker 1: once you've done that, it does not vary. Um. All right, 362 00:20:27,320 --> 00:20:33,879 Speaker 1: Well that's the basis the very basic foundation of batteries. Guys, 363 00:20:34,000 --> 00:20:37,080 Speaker 1: We're gonna have to take a quick break. I just 364 00:20:37,200 --> 00:20:40,160 Speaker 1: realized the podcast has runned out of batteries, So I'm 365 00:20:40,160 --> 00:20:43,240 Speaker 1: gonna go run across the street grab a couple more. Um, 366 00:20:43,280 --> 00:20:53,360 Speaker 1: I'll be right back. All right, So we're back. Uh, 367 00:20:53,440 --> 00:20:56,240 Speaker 1: And we've learned the basic function of a battery and 368 00:20:56,280 --> 00:20:58,680 Speaker 1: how it does what it does. So what's the problem. 369 00:20:58,720 --> 00:21:03,879 Speaker 1: Why haven't we made super batteries that last forever and 370 00:21:04,400 --> 00:21:07,320 Speaker 1: never need to be recharged and can put out more 371 00:21:07,400 --> 00:21:11,840 Speaker 1: energy than uh the generator? Yeah, well, I mean, you know, 372 00:21:11,880 --> 00:21:16,800 Speaker 1: there's the first commercial dry cell batteries premiered in and 373 00:21:16,920 --> 00:21:20,120 Speaker 1: they haven't really changed all that much since then. Yeah, 374 00:21:20,160 --> 00:21:25,400 Speaker 1: we've we've experimented with different materials, but the actual process 375 00:21:25,800 --> 00:21:28,440 Speaker 1: has remained very much the same. And there are physical 376 00:21:28,560 --> 00:21:33,000 Speaker 1: limits that chemical batteries have, but they can only generate 377 00:21:33,119 --> 00:21:36,520 Speaker 1: so much electricity through these reactions. There have been a 378 00:21:36,560 --> 00:21:39,080 Speaker 1: few permutations of different things. In addition to those nickel 379 00:21:39,160 --> 00:21:43,320 Speaker 1: cadmium batteries that that have the memory effect problem that 380 00:21:43,359 --> 00:21:45,680 Speaker 1: we mentioned earlier. There's there was also some some nickel 381 00:21:45,720 --> 00:21:49,200 Speaker 1: metal hydride, but they had a really short shelf life. 382 00:21:49,600 --> 00:21:52,800 Speaker 1: They would start degrading pretty quickly. Yeah. That's another thing 383 00:21:52,880 --> 00:21:55,720 Speaker 1: about some types of batteries is that lithium ion batteries 384 00:21:55,760 --> 00:21:58,679 Speaker 1: have that problem as well. Um, they're they're less bad 385 00:21:58,720 --> 00:22:01,240 Speaker 1: at it, but they're still not deal right. The idea 386 00:22:01,320 --> 00:22:04,479 Speaker 1: being that these these chemical reactions, like the longer the 387 00:22:04,520 --> 00:22:10,600 Speaker 1: battery sits idle, the less juice. Yeah, and and and 388 00:22:10,640 --> 00:22:12,040 Speaker 1: this doesn't have anything to do with how much you 389 00:22:12,119 --> 00:22:15,240 Speaker 1: use it. It's it's from the moment that they're made. Yeah. Yeah. 390 00:22:15,400 --> 00:22:18,520 Speaker 1: And also you may have heard stories about, well, if 391 00:22:18,520 --> 00:22:22,040 Speaker 1: you want to keep your batteries from the grading, you 392 00:22:22,080 --> 00:22:24,240 Speaker 1: should put them in the refrigerator. Don't do that. Don't 393 00:22:24,280 --> 00:22:26,560 Speaker 1: do that because that actually it actually slows down the 394 00:22:26,640 --> 00:22:32,040 Speaker 1: chemical processes that happen when you Yeah, when you're when 395 00:22:32,040 --> 00:22:33,960 Speaker 1: you're trying to use the battery, and you're going to 396 00:22:34,359 --> 00:22:36,280 Speaker 1: not get as much juice as you thought you were 397 00:22:36,400 --> 00:22:39,360 Speaker 1: because the chemicals themselves are too cold to have those 398 00:22:39,400 --> 00:22:42,000 Speaker 1: chemical reactions happen at the correct rate. They're still going 399 00:22:42,040 --> 00:22:46,520 Speaker 1: to happen, but you're gonna get a easily amount of 400 00:22:46,600 --> 00:22:49,520 Speaker 1: juice out of it. Right, So, so far lithium ion batteries, 401 00:22:49,600 --> 00:22:53,320 Speaker 1: especially for small uses, have have been have been pretty 402 00:22:53,359 --> 00:22:56,080 Speaker 1: pretty rad um. However, they are very sensitive to high 403 00:22:56,119 --> 00:23:00,760 Speaker 1: temperatures um, you know, which is occasionally why they wind 404 00:23:00,840 --> 00:23:04,080 Speaker 1: up exploding, bursting into flame. Let's let's also point out 405 00:23:04,080 --> 00:23:08,120 Speaker 1: that lithium is an alkali metal, so and we'll we'll 406 00:23:08,119 --> 00:23:10,480 Speaker 1: talk about a little bit. We're gonna talk about a 407 00:23:10,480 --> 00:23:15,240 Speaker 1: a a possible future type of battery that people are 408 00:23:15,240 --> 00:23:18,600 Speaker 1: working on right now where that's really an issue. Both 409 00:23:18,640 --> 00:23:23,200 Speaker 1: lithium and sodium are being considered for new types of batteries, 410 00:23:23,200 --> 00:23:27,040 Speaker 1: but both of them are alkali metals. The big problem, 411 00:23:27,080 --> 00:23:29,080 Speaker 1: there are several problems, but the big problem I would 412 00:23:29,119 --> 00:23:32,240 Speaker 1: say with that is alkali metals belong to a class 413 00:23:32,240 --> 00:23:36,159 Speaker 1: where they tend to be let's say, reactive when they 414 00:23:36,200 --> 00:23:39,280 Speaker 1: come into contact with water. So, if you've ever heard 415 00:23:39,280 --> 00:23:41,680 Speaker 1: stories about sodium and water, or if you've ever seen 416 00:23:41,680 --> 00:23:46,719 Speaker 1: anyone demonstrate what happens when sodium encounters water, uh, you know, 417 00:23:47,440 --> 00:23:50,160 Speaker 1: it's explosive. The same thing is true of lithium. All right, 418 00:23:51,040 --> 00:23:53,480 Speaker 1: this is where we get a little chemistry lesson. Everyone 419 00:23:53,560 --> 00:23:57,840 Speaker 1: go and get your periodic table of elements. I'll wait now, 420 00:23:57,880 --> 00:24:00,240 Speaker 1: if you look at the left hand side of that 421 00:24:00,440 --> 00:24:03,120 Speaker 1: table of elements, you're gonna see that down the line, 422 00:24:03,119 --> 00:24:05,040 Speaker 1: you're gonna have lithium and you're gonna have sodium that 423 00:24:05,080 --> 00:24:07,800 Speaker 1: are both in that same line, as well as potassium 424 00:24:07,800 --> 00:24:11,640 Speaker 1: and some other alkali metals. That means that those elements 425 00:24:11,800 --> 00:24:15,520 Speaker 1: share common characteristics, and one of those is when water 426 00:24:15,640 --> 00:24:19,640 Speaker 1: comes in contacts, sometimes things go boom. So first of all, 427 00:24:19,840 --> 00:24:23,879 Speaker 1: never never ever play with these I don't if you 428 00:24:24,080 --> 00:24:27,400 Speaker 1: get hold of sodium or lithium, never play with that. 429 00:24:27,440 --> 00:24:31,280 Speaker 1: And water, this is seriously dangerous stuff. Also, probably just 430 00:24:31,280 --> 00:24:33,480 Speaker 1: just don't. I mean, because because water is in the 431 00:24:33,600 --> 00:24:37,400 Speaker 1: air around us in in great enough quantities that hypothetically 432 00:24:37,480 --> 00:24:41,840 Speaker 1: it can burst into flame. I know of someone I didn't. 433 00:24:41,920 --> 00:24:43,640 Speaker 1: This is a friend of a friend's story, so it's 434 00:24:43,760 --> 00:24:47,159 Speaker 1: possibly apocryphal, So so it could be urban legend. I 435 00:24:47,240 --> 00:24:52,119 Speaker 1: admit that. But I know of someone who pocketed some 436 00:24:52,240 --> 00:24:57,919 Speaker 1: sodium from his chemistry class and then was walking around 437 00:24:58,200 --> 00:25:02,000 Speaker 1: with it in his pocket, and and his body was 438 00:25:02,320 --> 00:25:06,280 Speaker 1: giving off moisture, and so he began to feel a 439 00:25:06,280 --> 00:25:10,000 Speaker 1: burning sensation in his pants and immediately ran to the 440 00:25:10,040 --> 00:25:13,400 Speaker 1: bathroom and pulled the sodium mountain threw it into the toilet, 441 00:25:14,440 --> 00:25:18,840 Speaker 1: which then exploded. Yeah, again, could be apocryphal. This is 442 00:25:18,920 --> 00:25:20,919 Speaker 1: it was a story about a high school student who 443 00:25:20,920 --> 00:25:22,840 Speaker 1: went to a rival school, so it could have very 444 00:25:22,840 --> 00:25:24,680 Speaker 1: well been one of those stories where ha ha, the 445 00:25:24,720 --> 00:25:26,440 Speaker 1: people who go to that school are so dumb, so 446 00:25:26,520 --> 00:25:28,280 Speaker 1: much more dumb than the people who go to my school, 447 00:25:28,720 --> 00:25:32,120 Speaker 1: which is saying something. I'm just kidding. I love all 448 00:25:32,119 --> 00:25:37,000 Speaker 1: my classmates Spartans, but anyway, you were the Spartans, I 449 00:25:37,080 --> 00:25:41,760 Speaker 1: was the Spartans. Spartans Spartans together. This is tech stuff. 450 00:25:42,080 --> 00:25:45,520 Speaker 1: So but the point, the point being that these these 451 00:25:45,680 --> 00:25:49,080 Speaker 1: these elements have serious drawbacks to him. And that's one 452 00:25:49,119 --> 00:25:53,200 Speaker 1: of the reasons why the another reason why battery improvement 453 00:25:53,240 --> 00:25:55,480 Speaker 1: has gone so slowly, because we have to find safe 454 00:25:55,520 --> 00:25:58,439 Speaker 1: ways to handle this stuff so that it doesn't come 455 00:25:58,480 --> 00:26:01,240 Speaker 1: into contact with water and and just blow up. Right. 456 00:26:01,600 --> 00:26:03,720 Speaker 1: Part of that in lithium ion batteries specifically, is that 457 00:26:03,760 --> 00:26:06,040 Speaker 1: they have to have a very small, very simple onboard 458 00:26:06,040 --> 00:26:09,040 Speaker 1: computer to to manage the way that all of the 459 00:26:09,040 --> 00:26:12,000 Speaker 1: bits flow around in there, and uh and and that 460 00:26:12,000 --> 00:26:14,640 Speaker 1: that makes them pretty expensive lithium is already pretty expensive, 461 00:26:14,640 --> 00:26:16,280 Speaker 1: but it makes them even more expensive than they would 462 00:26:16,320 --> 00:26:19,160 Speaker 1: already be. Now, we have seen some improvements with battery 463 00:26:19,240 --> 00:26:22,240 Speaker 1: life in recent years, but a lot of that doesn't 464 00:26:22,320 --> 00:26:25,760 Speaker 1: come from improvements in the batteries. It's coming in improvements 465 00:26:25,800 --> 00:26:29,680 Speaker 1: in the actual electronics. We are finding more efficient ways 466 00:26:30,119 --> 00:26:33,840 Speaker 1: to generate the stuff we want. So your smartphones, if 467 00:26:33,880 --> 00:26:38,880 Speaker 1: you've got a smartphone recently that has a decent battery life, 468 00:26:38,920 --> 00:26:41,400 Speaker 1: it may not be that the battery is so much better. 469 00:26:41,440 --> 00:26:44,080 Speaker 1: It's just that the people who designed the hardware and software, 470 00:26:44,440 --> 00:26:49,000 Speaker 1: we're able to maximize performance while being as efficient as possible. 471 00:26:49,320 --> 00:26:53,760 Speaker 1: So you're still working with the same basic amount of Yeah, 472 00:26:53,880 --> 00:26:56,320 Speaker 1: but I don't need as much of it to do 473 00:26:56,359 --> 00:27:00,159 Speaker 1: the stuff you are doing exactly. Speaking of that juice though, Um, 474 00:27:00,200 --> 00:27:02,399 Speaker 1: the problem with batteries, and the reason that that that 475 00:27:02,560 --> 00:27:06,119 Speaker 1: gasoline has not been ousted completely by batteries, is that 476 00:27:06,720 --> 00:27:09,639 Speaker 1: gasoline has an energy density of something like thirteen thousand 477 00:27:09,920 --> 00:27:12,439 Speaker 1: watt hours per kilogram, which is which is just a 478 00:27:12,480 --> 00:27:14,840 Speaker 1: measure of how much of juice it has, how much 479 00:27:15,280 --> 00:27:17,880 Speaker 1: how much how much work you can get out of 480 00:27:18,040 --> 00:27:22,520 Speaker 1: a given amount of gasoline. Sure, Um, the best lithium 481 00:27:22,560 --> 00:27:26,480 Speaker 1: ion batteries only hold about two hundred what hours per kilogram, 482 00:27:26,920 --> 00:27:30,040 Speaker 1: with of a of a hypothetical in a perfect world 483 00:27:30,119 --> 00:27:34,720 Speaker 1: situation four hundred possible, so still vastly underpowered when you 484 00:27:34,760 --> 00:27:40,760 Speaker 1: compare it to gasoline. Right now, there are some people 485 00:27:40,800 --> 00:27:43,639 Speaker 1: out there, very very smart people working on batteries that 486 00:27:43,680 --> 00:27:48,399 Speaker 1: would have much higher densities power densities for their batteries 487 00:27:48,440 --> 00:27:50,439 Speaker 1: if they can get the batteries to work, if they 488 00:27:50,440 --> 00:27:53,320 Speaker 1: can get the the components to to to play nicely, 489 00:27:53,760 --> 00:27:57,159 Speaker 1: to not explode, and to work on larger scales and 490 00:27:57,240 --> 00:28:00,359 Speaker 1: to work after more than three charges. There are a 491 00:28:00,400 --> 00:28:03,160 Speaker 1: lot of barriers that are in place, and we'll talk 492 00:28:03,200 --> 00:28:07,560 Speaker 1: about some specific uh cases, but keep in mind there 493 00:28:07,560 --> 00:28:11,359 Speaker 1: have been dozens, if not hundreds of different experiments and 494 00:28:11,480 --> 00:28:15,479 Speaker 1: trying to improve battery technology, and most of them just 495 00:28:15,600 --> 00:28:18,040 Speaker 1: have not panned out. They might have seen promising at 496 00:28:18,040 --> 00:28:19,600 Speaker 1: the beginning, but when you get to a point where 497 00:28:19,600 --> 00:28:21,199 Speaker 1: you're thinking, all right, how are we going to scale 498 00:28:21,200 --> 00:28:24,359 Speaker 1: this up where we can actually manufacture it or create 499 00:28:24,359 --> 00:28:26,880 Speaker 1: a battery large enough to do something useful, and then 500 00:28:27,160 --> 00:28:29,800 Speaker 1: things start to break down. So one of the ones 501 00:28:29,800 --> 00:28:33,240 Speaker 1: I wanted to talk about where these things called micro batteries. 502 00:28:33,520 --> 00:28:37,119 Speaker 1: And this was something that UH that we received from 503 00:28:37,160 --> 00:28:41,880 Speaker 1: that initial request to talk about battery improvements. And this 504 00:28:41,960 --> 00:28:45,160 Speaker 1: is a story about a team of researchers from the 505 00:28:45,200 --> 00:28:50,280 Speaker 1: University of Illinois UH talking about a particular type of 506 00:28:50,280 --> 00:28:54,760 Speaker 1: battery that uses these very tiny electrodes and lots and 507 00:28:54,800 --> 00:28:58,640 Speaker 1: lots of them, and their three dimensional electrodes, and it 508 00:28:58,760 --> 00:29:02,200 Speaker 1: was almost like these troads are kind of intertwined together, 509 00:29:02,240 --> 00:29:04,960 Speaker 1: so they're very close together, which allows the ions to 510 00:29:05,080 --> 00:29:08,720 Speaker 1: pass very very quickly. It also allows electrons to flow 511 00:29:09,040 --> 00:29:11,000 Speaker 1: very quickly, and the idea being that you would be 512 00:29:11,040 --> 00:29:13,240 Speaker 1: able to release quite a bit of energy in a 513 00:29:13,240 --> 00:29:16,360 Speaker 1: short amount of time, faster than you could with most batteries, 514 00:29:16,560 --> 00:29:20,440 Speaker 1: and you could also recharge the battery way faster, right, 515 00:29:20,440 --> 00:29:22,440 Speaker 1: because that thoroughput speed has a lot to do with 516 00:29:22,480 --> 00:29:25,600 Speaker 1: how effective a battery is. Yeah, And in fact, according 517 00:29:25,680 --> 00:29:30,560 Speaker 1: to several articles that were posted about this technology, BBC 518 00:29:30,760 --> 00:29:34,520 Speaker 1: did one as well as some other outlets. The claim 519 00:29:34,600 --> 00:29:37,280 Speaker 1: was that such a battery would be reached could be 520 00:29:37,320 --> 00:29:41,920 Speaker 1: recharged one thousand times faster than competing technology. So you 521 00:29:41,960 --> 00:29:45,680 Speaker 1: could turn your you know, plug your smartphone in let's 522 00:29:45,680 --> 00:29:47,640 Speaker 1: say your smartphone has one of these batteries in it, 523 00:29:48,200 --> 00:29:51,000 Speaker 1: and you plugged it in. After a second, it's fully recharged. 524 00:29:51,560 --> 00:29:53,840 Speaker 1: You don't have to leave it there for hours for 525 00:29:53,880 --> 00:29:56,880 Speaker 1: it to charge up, which is that's a very attractive thing. 526 00:29:57,400 --> 00:29:59,440 Speaker 1: So you're thinking, well, if it can release lots of 527 00:29:59,520 --> 00:30:02,360 Speaker 1: energy and if it can be recharged in a blink 528 00:30:02,400 --> 00:30:06,960 Speaker 1: of an eye, where's the problem. Well, mostly the problem 529 00:30:07,040 --> 00:30:12,120 Speaker 1: comes in from the manufacturing side and the scalability as 530 00:30:12,160 --> 00:30:15,920 Speaker 1: well as, uh, the fact that it's not the most 531 00:30:15,960 --> 00:30:20,480 Speaker 1: reliable technology. Ours Technica actually ran a great article where 532 00:30:20,520 --> 00:30:23,920 Speaker 1: they really looked into this and and dove deeper than 533 00:30:24,080 --> 00:30:27,239 Speaker 1: a lot of the other outlets did to kind of 534 00:30:27,240 --> 00:30:29,520 Speaker 1: take a look at this technology with a skeptical eye, 535 00:30:29,600 --> 00:30:31,760 Speaker 1: just to make sure that it really did measure up 536 00:30:31,760 --> 00:30:35,760 Speaker 1: to the hype, because we've seen this before with battery technology, right. 537 00:30:36,480 --> 00:30:38,360 Speaker 1: And this isn't to say that they want the team 538 00:30:38,400 --> 00:30:40,800 Speaker 1: won't figure out a way of of solving the problems 539 00:30:40,840 --> 00:30:42,520 Speaker 1: that they face, But here are some of the problems. 540 00:30:42,560 --> 00:30:45,280 Speaker 1: One of them is that it's really hard to manufacture 541 00:30:45,320 --> 00:30:47,280 Speaker 1: these things. The way that the team was doing it, 542 00:30:48,000 --> 00:30:52,320 Speaker 1: they were using this uh this essentially gold to make 543 00:30:52,320 --> 00:30:56,640 Speaker 1: these little three dimensional um electrodes sort of, and then 544 00:30:56,640 --> 00:31:01,800 Speaker 1: they used polystyrene uh, little little old tiny poly styring pills, 545 00:31:02,040 --> 00:31:07,520 Speaker 1: essentially packing them in there, twisting the electrodes around, coding 546 00:31:07,560 --> 00:31:11,360 Speaker 1: it in nickel in a well in a combination of 547 00:31:11,440 --> 00:31:15,400 Speaker 1: nickel and tin and then uh nickelton alloy actually, and 548 00:31:15,440 --> 00:31:21,280 Speaker 1: then coding the rest of it with manganese oxy hydroxide uh, 549 00:31:21,280 --> 00:31:26,640 Speaker 1: and then melting away the poly styrene so it it's gone, 550 00:31:26,960 --> 00:31:29,080 Speaker 1: then immersing the whole thing to a liquid that was 551 00:31:29,120 --> 00:31:33,800 Speaker 1: heated to three degrees celsius or five degrees fahrenheit. And 552 00:31:33,920 --> 00:31:36,880 Speaker 1: so it's what even the team has referred to as 553 00:31:36,960 --> 00:31:42,440 Speaker 1: a boutique manufacturing approach, meaning that it's very detailed, it's painstaking, 554 00:31:42,560 --> 00:31:47,240 Speaker 1: it is not automated. Extremely expensive. Yeah, it's not time 555 00:31:47,280 --> 00:31:52,040 Speaker 1: consuming exactly. Not something that's scalable to mass manufacturing methods 556 00:31:52,120 --> 00:31:54,040 Speaker 1: right now, certainly. Right. That's not to say that they 557 00:31:54,040 --> 00:31:56,400 Speaker 1: wouldn't find some other way of doing it. They may 558 00:31:56,440 --> 00:31:58,520 Speaker 1: find a way of doing it where it doesn't require 559 00:31:58,720 --> 00:32:02,360 Speaker 1: this series of painstaking steps in order to get the 560 00:32:02,400 --> 00:32:07,200 Speaker 1: result that they want, but uh, it's not ideal. Another 561 00:32:07,240 --> 00:32:11,080 Speaker 1: problem is that the electrolyte they're using is combustible, so 562 00:32:11,160 --> 00:32:13,560 Speaker 1: that's always a concern. If you get it too hot, 563 00:32:13,640 --> 00:32:16,920 Speaker 1: it could burst into flames. Uh um or you know, 564 00:32:16,960 --> 00:32:18,520 Speaker 1: if you were to get it close to a flame, 565 00:32:18,600 --> 00:32:22,720 Speaker 1: it could catch fire. And on top of all that, uh, 566 00:32:22,960 --> 00:32:25,840 Speaker 1: the battery loses about five percent of its capacity with 567 00:32:25,960 --> 00:32:30,400 Speaker 1: each charge discharge cycle, So after fifteen cycles it would 568 00:32:30,400 --> 00:32:33,040 Speaker 1: be down to about two thirds of its original capacity. 569 00:32:33,440 --> 00:32:37,840 Speaker 1: And uh, if you were to do a full discharge 570 00:32:37,880 --> 00:32:40,680 Speaker 1: full charge, it might be even worse than that. So 571 00:32:40,960 --> 00:32:43,600 Speaker 1: while it would recharge very quickly, it would have a 572 00:32:43,600 --> 00:32:48,040 Speaker 1: little less juice each time. And so after you recharge 573 00:32:48,040 --> 00:32:50,960 Speaker 1: it twenty times, you have to charge, Yeah, you have 574 00:32:51,000 --> 00:32:54,120 Speaker 1: to buy a new battery, new battery, right, So uh 575 00:32:54,160 --> 00:32:58,040 Speaker 1: that raises lots of problems to waste problems. For example, 576 00:32:58,160 --> 00:33:00,840 Speaker 1: like even if you were to say, well that's acceptable 577 00:33:00,840 --> 00:33:02,440 Speaker 1: because I want to be able to charge my phone 578 00:33:02,440 --> 00:33:04,600 Speaker 1: in a second, you can do that twenty times, and 579 00:33:04,600 --> 00:33:06,080 Speaker 1: then you have to go buy a new battery. And 580 00:33:06,160 --> 00:33:08,160 Speaker 1: especially when the when the technology to create it is 581 00:33:08,200 --> 00:33:10,400 Speaker 1: so so detailed and expensive, and to be fair, you 582 00:33:10,400 --> 00:33:13,600 Speaker 1: wouldn't even you wouldn't even go twenty times, right because 583 00:33:13,680 --> 00:33:15,960 Speaker 1: each time you would have less juice and so your 584 00:33:16,280 --> 00:33:19,120 Speaker 1: your phone would be less and less useful over time. 585 00:33:19,160 --> 00:33:22,120 Speaker 1: So after after your phone doesn't last more than a 586 00:33:22,120 --> 00:33:23,600 Speaker 1: couple of hours, you think, well, I gotta get a 587 00:33:23,640 --> 00:33:26,480 Speaker 1: new battery. So that might be six or seven recharges, 588 00:33:26,800 --> 00:33:31,200 Speaker 1: depending upon how hard you are on electronics. If you're me, 589 00:33:32,040 --> 00:33:34,120 Speaker 1: then you'd be like, all right, recharge it, give me 590 00:33:34,160 --> 00:33:37,560 Speaker 1: a new battery, yea. Lauren and I have more to 591 00:33:37,600 --> 00:33:40,240 Speaker 1: say about the evolution of batteries in just a moment, 592 00:33:40,280 --> 00:33:50,800 Speaker 1: but first let's take another quick break. So so that 593 00:33:50,800 --> 00:33:55,280 Speaker 1: that's the downside to this micro battery technology. That's not 594 00:33:55,360 --> 00:33:57,800 Speaker 1: to say again that they won't find ways around that. 595 00:33:57,880 --> 00:34:01,560 Speaker 1: Engineers are brilliant at finding ways of fixing problems. But 596 00:34:01,760 --> 00:34:05,960 Speaker 1: it's not going to be the revolutionary battery technology that 597 00:34:05,960 --> 00:34:07,800 Speaker 1: we're all going to see in our smartphones in the 598 00:34:07,840 --> 00:34:10,040 Speaker 1: next few months. It'll it'll at least be a couple 599 00:34:10,040 --> 00:34:12,759 Speaker 1: of years before we can see this rolled out in 600 00:34:12,800 --> 00:34:14,919 Speaker 1: any way, assuming that they find a way to fix 601 00:34:14,920 --> 00:34:18,400 Speaker 1: these problems. Right. One of the other ones that I 602 00:34:18,440 --> 00:34:21,719 Speaker 1: wanted to talk about our lithium air batteries, and this 603 00:34:21,760 --> 00:34:24,440 Speaker 1: is where we're getting into those alkali metals and the 604 00:34:24,560 --> 00:34:27,960 Speaker 1: concern about how they react with water exactly. You know, 605 00:34:28,320 --> 00:34:31,080 Speaker 1: they could hypothetically store up to four times as as 606 00:34:31,160 --> 00:34:34,000 Speaker 1: much as as lithium ion batteries, as much power as 607 00:34:34,040 --> 00:34:39,680 Speaker 1: lithium ion batteries, but they work in the um. Lithium 608 00:34:39,719 --> 00:34:42,520 Speaker 1: combines with with oxygen that's trapped by a carbon surface. 609 00:34:42,680 --> 00:34:45,680 Speaker 1: Carbon nanotubes are are popular right now and um and 610 00:34:45,680 --> 00:34:49,440 Speaker 1: the resulting interplay of these lithium ions and electrons induces 611 00:34:49,480 --> 00:34:52,759 Speaker 1: the flow of current UM. Yeah, you get a get a. 612 00:34:53,160 --> 00:34:54,920 Speaker 1: One of the by products you get out of this 613 00:34:55,000 --> 00:35:00,480 Speaker 1: is lithium peroxide, which is a problem because as it umulates, 614 00:35:00,520 --> 00:35:04,279 Speaker 1: it starts to make it more difficult to recharge the battery. Right. 615 00:35:04,640 --> 00:35:08,839 Speaker 1: So they they've only recently figured well, they they've had 616 00:35:08,840 --> 00:35:13,239 Speaker 1: a bunch of of barriers to to making this work. 617 00:35:13,360 --> 00:35:15,920 Speaker 1: That is, that is one of them. They're they're starting to. 618 00:35:16,640 --> 00:35:19,640 Speaker 1: For a long time, they didn't understand why the electrochemical 619 00:35:19,680 --> 00:35:21,920 Speaker 1: reactions were going so poorly in these things, and it 620 00:35:21,960 --> 00:35:27,440 Speaker 1: wasn't until uh that that researchers at M I T 621 00:35:27,560 --> 00:35:30,560 Speaker 1: and Sandia National Labs announced that they were starting to 622 00:35:30,680 --> 00:35:33,600 Speaker 1: be able to observe the reactions at all to figure 623 00:35:33,600 --> 00:35:36,040 Speaker 1: out why this isn't work. And that's when they started 624 00:35:36,080 --> 00:35:39,560 Speaker 1: seeing this lithium peroxide forming that was inhibiting the flow 625 00:35:39,600 --> 00:35:43,520 Speaker 1: of electricity. And uh, they did discover that if the 626 00:35:43,600 --> 00:35:47,160 Speaker 1: electricity were flowing, that the lithium peroxide was starting to 627 00:35:47,239 --> 00:35:51,759 Speaker 1: reduce around the trouble spots, and they figured that if 628 00:35:51,760 --> 00:35:55,520 Speaker 1: they could improve the electron flow of the battery overall, 629 00:35:55,920 --> 00:35:58,440 Speaker 1: then they might be able to get around this problem. 630 00:35:58,520 --> 00:36:03,120 Speaker 1: So that recharging does become an issue, right. Uh, that 631 00:36:03,120 --> 00:36:05,560 Speaker 1: that explosion thing that we mentioned earlier is still at 632 00:36:05,719 --> 00:36:08,959 Speaker 1: issue because when when you're dealing with you know, these 633 00:36:09,000 --> 00:36:12,879 Speaker 1: these carbon surfaces are allowing air to basically breathe into 634 00:36:12,880 --> 00:36:16,880 Speaker 1: the battery, and since water happens in air, yeah, you 635 00:36:17,000 --> 00:36:19,440 Speaker 1: have to find either a way of coding the lithium 636 00:36:19,520 --> 00:36:21,760 Speaker 1: inside the battery so that the water would not react 637 00:36:21,800 --> 00:36:24,080 Speaker 1: with the surface of lithium, or you have to find 638 00:36:24,080 --> 00:36:27,120 Speaker 1: a way of filtering the water out entirely, so that 639 00:36:27,840 --> 00:36:31,799 Speaker 1: membrane at the top end, Yeah, hydrophobic membrane, that's what 640 00:36:31,840 --> 00:36:33,759 Speaker 1: we'd like to call that. It's scared of water. It 641 00:36:33,800 --> 00:36:38,560 Speaker 1: pushes water out. So uh, yeah, it's that that's an issue. Now, 642 00:36:38,600 --> 00:36:42,719 Speaker 1: there is a potential alternative to lithium air batteries called 643 00:36:42,800 --> 00:36:47,279 Speaker 1: sodium air batteries that are even they are, they may 644 00:36:47,280 --> 00:36:50,120 Speaker 1: not be able to hold as much energy as a 645 00:36:50,400 --> 00:36:54,520 Speaker 1: lithium battery. It's a lower theoretical energy density, but a 646 00:36:54,640 --> 00:36:58,120 Speaker 1: higher practical energy density at at the current moment exactly, 647 00:36:58,200 --> 00:37:02,760 Speaker 1: So current moment dear. So yeah, no, it's it always happens. 648 00:37:03,400 --> 00:37:07,160 Speaker 1: You can't get around it. But yeah, that's so that's 649 00:37:07,200 --> 00:37:10,080 Speaker 1: a possibility. But again, remember sodium is probably that alkali 650 00:37:10,120 --> 00:37:13,640 Speaker 1: metal groups, so against same issues. You get that water 651 00:37:13,719 --> 00:37:17,840 Speaker 1: in contact with sodium and battery goal boom, yeah instead 652 00:37:17,840 --> 00:37:22,399 Speaker 1: of instead of zap zap. Right. Uh. There's there's also 653 00:37:22,480 --> 00:37:26,080 Speaker 1: research being done into what's being called solid state batteries UM, 654 00:37:26,080 --> 00:37:29,080 Speaker 1: which are kind of kind of the lithium ion um 655 00:37:29,280 --> 00:37:32,960 Speaker 1: solution to dry cell batteries. It's it's using um thin 656 00:37:33,080 --> 00:37:36,960 Speaker 1: layers of solid electrolyte instead of instead of the liquid 657 00:37:36,960 --> 00:37:40,880 Speaker 1: that most lithium ions use. UM. Yeah. And then there's 658 00:37:40,920 --> 00:37:44,240 Speaker 1: a I read on Wired this interesting idea of spray 659 00:37:44,320 --> 00:37:47,680 Speaker 1: can batteries where each of the each of the elements 660 00:37:47,680 --> 00:37:51,279 Speaker 1: that you would find within a battery, the cathodeena, the electrolyte, 661 00:37:51,280 --> 00:37:55,359 Speaker 1: all that is represented by a different can of uh, 662 00:37:55,480 --> 00:37:59,160 Speaker 1: sprayable material, so you could actually spray this material onto 663 00:37:59,160 --> 00:38:02,480 Speaker 1: different surfaces and make a battery that way. And the 664 00:38:02,520 --> 00:38:05,040 Speaker 1: idea being that this would allow you to create batteries 665 00:38:05,200 --> 00:38:09,040 Speaker 1: in devices that would incorporate the battery designed directly into 666 00:38:09,080 --> 00:38:12,720 Speaker 1: the device, so you wouldn't have this blocky battery compartment. Now, 667 00:38:12,880 --> 00:38:16,480 Speaker 1: it's not saying that these batteries would be particularly efficient 668 00:38:16,560 --> 00:38:19,560 Speaker 1: or powerful compared to what we have now, just that 669 00:38:19,600 --> 00:38:23,360 Speaker 1: this would give us more opportunity to explore different ways 670 00:38:23,520 --> 00:38:28,000 Speaker 1: of shaping batteries so that they are part of our 671 00:38:28,040 --> 00:38:30,920 Speaker 1: electronics and not just you know again, not just some 672 00:38:31,000 --> 00:38:33,799 Speaker 1: clunky thing that you have to find make room, make 673 00:38:33,920 --> 00:38:36,759 Speaker 1: room for it, right, right, and and also not so heavy. Um, 674 00:38:36,880 --> 00:38:40,160 Speaker 1: what would be terrific. That reminds me of the nanocomposite 675 00:38:40,160 --> 00:38:42,960 Speaker 1: paper batteries that some people are are working on. These 676 00:38:42,960 --> 00:38:46,000 Speaker 1: are These are composed of cellulose and um an aligned 677 00:38:46,000 --> 00:38:49,839 Speaker 1: carbon nanotubes woven together UM and and they're they're they're small, 678 00:38:49,840 --> 00:38:55,280 Speaker 1: they're flat, they're flexible, they're implantable. Um. They could hypothetically 679 00:38:55,480 --> 00:38:59,040 Speaker 1: be put into medical devices. Yeah, these could actually use 680 00:38:59,239 --> 00:39:03,080 Speaker 1: biological fluid as ionic fluid, So it ends up turning 681 00:39:03,360 --> 00:39:07,000 Speaker 1: your body's fluids into the electrolyte it needs. This is 682 00:39:07,040 --> 00:39:10,239 Speaker 1: just making me think of idiocracy. It's electrolyte. It's the 683 00:39:10,280 --> 00:39:13,239 Speaker 1: thing that plants crave. Um. I was doing the hand 684 00:39:13,280 --> 00:39:15,440 Speaker 1: gesture and everything for those of you are fans of 685 00:39:15,440 --> 00:39:18,600 Speaker 1: that movie. Then there's also uh, you know, the Verge 686 00:39:18,680 --> 00:39:24,080 Speaker 1: reported on bacteria that are able to transfer electricity, and 687 00:39:24,160 --> 00:39:26,239 Speaker 1: scientists had known about this for a while, but they 688 00:39:26,280 --> 00:39:29,120 Speaker 1: weren't sure about what the mechanism was, like how did 689 00:39:29,160 --> 00:39:33,680 Speaker 1: it transfer electricity? And they discovered that that there were 690 00:39:33,960 --> 00:39:39,960 Speaker 1: proteins on the bacteria surface that we're responsible for electron transfer. Uh. 691 00:39:40,320 --> 00:39:43,440 Speaker 1: The bacteria is uh, this is this is going to 692 00:39:43,480 --> 00:39:46,160 Speaker 1: be a train wreck of a pronunciation in front of me. 693 00:39:46,680 --> 00:39:54,160 Speaker 1: Luck she wa nella oneidnisis. But anyway attaches to rusty 694 00:39:54,200 --> 00:39:57,200 Speaker 1: iron and other materials and breaks those down and in 695 00:39:57,280 --> 00:40:01,880 Speaker 1: the process of breaking down these materials, it releases electrons. 696 00:40:01,960 --> 00:40:05,960 Speaker 1: So why are we interested in this? Because by studying 697 00:40:06,080 --> 00:40:10,959 Speaker 1: biological organisms that can emit electricity as part of some 698 00:40:11,680 --> 00:40:14,640 Speaker 1: process where it's consuming something, we might be able to 699 00:40:14,680 --> 00:40:18,320 Speaker 1: create biological batteries. Right, And these are these are a 700 00:40:18,320 --> 00:40:21,720 Speaker 1: little bit more of fuel cell really than a battery. 701 00:40:21,840 --> 00:40:24,880 Speaker 1: But and and to explain the difference, a fuel cell 702 00:40:25,160 --> 00:40:29,279 Speaker 1: is a device that you put fuel into and then 703 00:40:29,320 --> 00:40:33,359 Speaker 1: there's a chemical reaction that generates electricity, and then you 704 00:40:33,480 --> 00:40:36,280 Speaker 1: refill the fuel cell. So and you know, with a battery, 705 00:40:36,320 --> 00:40:39,960 Speaker 1: what you're doing is you're using an electric uh or 706 00:40:40,040 --> 00:40:44,440 Speaker 1: electrochemical reaction to harness electricity, and then you either have 707 00:40:44,480 --> 00:40:47,360 Speaker 1: to reverse the reaction in order to get the battery 708 00:40:47,440 --> 00:40:49,800 Speaker 1: to do it again, or you have to replace the battery. 709 00:40:49,840 --> 00:40:53,160 Speaker 1: Fuel cell, you just refill it with fuel. So hydrogen 710 00:40:53,200 --> 00:40:56,040 Speaker 1: fuel cells are the ones that most people know about 711 00:40:56,080 --> 00:40:58,000 Speaker 1: because those the ones that we've talked about for things 712 00:40:58,040 --> 00:41:01,759 Speaker 1: like cars. Hydrogen fuel cell ells use hydrogen, which is 713 00:41:01,800 --> 00:41:05,360 Speaker 1: the most plentiful element on Earth, although you have to 714 00:41:05,800 --> 00:41:08,280 Speaker 1: break it up from other stuff. It doesn't, it doesn't, 715 00:41:08,760 --> 00:41:11,320 Speaker 1: it's not so plentiful in its pure state. It's usually 716 00:41:12,160 --> 00:41:15,560 Speaker 1: it's it's in water, which is very plentiful, and hydrocarbons 717 00:41:15,600 --> 00:41:18,200 Speaker 1: as well, also very plentiful. But you have to separate 718 00:41:18,239 --> 00:41:21,080 Speaker 1: the hydrogen outfast, which requires energy a lot of energy. 719 00:41:21,120 --> 00:41:24,640 Speaker 1: But once you've got it, assuming that you've assuming that 720 00:41:24,680 --> 00:41:27,200 Speaker 1: you found some sort of a hydrogen mine where it's 721 00:41:27,200 --> 00:41:28,920 Speaker 1: not going to take you too much energy to get 722 00:41:28,960 --> 00:41:32,919 Speaker 1: it free. Um, you put hydrogen on one side of 723 00:41:33,040 --> 00:41:36,480 Speaker 1: a a membrane UM that has a catalyst on it, 724 00:41:36,600 --> 00:41:39,640 Speaker 1: usually something really expensive like platinum, and then on the 725 00:41:39,640 --> 00:41:42,160 Speaker 1: other side of the membrane you've got oxygen. The membrane 726 00:41:42,160 --> 00:41:46,960 Speaker 1: allows the hydrogen ions to pass through, but not hydrogen atoms. 727 00:41:47,120 --> 00:41:49,680 Speaker 1: It has to lose the electrons for it to pass through. 728 00:41:49,920 --> 00:41:52,160 Speaker 1: The electrons go through a circuit just like it would 729 00:41:52,200 --> 00:41:54,839 Speaker 1: with a battery and combine on the other side. So 730 00:41:55,120 --> 00:41:58,319 Speaker 1: the hydrogen ions passed through the membrane and that meets 731 00:41:58,360 --> 00:42:01,640 Speaker 1: up with the oxygen and says, hey, you wanna you 732 00:42:01,640 --> 00:42:03,759 Speaker 1: wanna go do something? I got my buddy here, my 733 00:42:03,760 --> 00:42:05,920 Speaker 1: buddy here, and I would love to take you out 734 00:42:05,960 --> 00:42:08,480 Speaker 1: to dinner. And so the two hydrogen take out the 735 00:42:08,520 --> 00:42:11,239 Speaker 1: one oxygen to dinner. Meanwhile, the electrons come back over 736 00:42:11,320 --> 00:42:14,080 Speaker 1: through the circuit and recombined, and then you get water. 737 00:42:14,560 --> 00:42:20,120 Speaker 1: So the output of a hydrogen based fuel cell is water, electricity, 738 00:42:20,160 --> 00:42:24,000 Speaker 1: and heat, which is why everything pretty Yeah, I think 739 00:42:24,040 --> 00:42:25,560 Speaker 1: this is why we would love to use it to 740 00:42:25,960 --> 00:42:29,400 Speaker 1: fuel cars because instead of giving off all these different 741 00:42:29,480 --> 00:42:33,880 Speaker 1: ghouse Yeah, now water vapor is technically a greenhouse gas, 742 00:42:33,920 --> 00:42:37,360 Speaker 1: but it's water vapor. It's not carbon dioxide, it's not 743 00:42:37,480 --> 00:42:41,120 Speaker 1: methane or anything like that. So that's why they're very attractive. 744 00:42:41,120 --> 00:42:43,640 Speaker 1: But they are you know, they're similar to batteries, but 745 00:42:43,680 --> 00:42:48,600 Speaker 1: there there is a difference. I do I do have 746 00:42:48,640 --> 00:42:50,800 Speaker 1: a have a bio battery that I was just reading 747 00:42:50,840 --> 00:42:53,480 Speaker 1: about research last November at m I T. Harvard and 748 00:42:53,520 --> 00:42:58,640 Speaker 1: the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. Um. Okay, so so 749 00:42:59,440 --> 00:43:03,040 Speaker 1: mammals have in their inner ears chamber that's filled with 750 00:43:03,080 --> 00:43:08,400 Speaker 1: ions and um uh. These these ions produce an electrical 751 00:43:08,440 --> 00:43:12,120 Speaker 1: potential which drives neural signals. And what this means is 752 00:43:12,120 --> 00:43:15,319 Speaker 1: that this is the chamber in your ear that that 753 00:43:15,440 --> 00:43:19,560 Speaker 1: lets the vibration of your ear drum be converted into 754 00:43:19,640 --> 00:43:22,480 Speaker 1: an electrochemical signal that your brain can read and then 755 00:43:22,520 --> 00:43:26,719 Speaker 1: interprets the sound and interprets a sound. Um and so 756 00:43:26,920 --> 00:43:29,319 Speaker 1: but but but you've got this this inner chamber that's 757 00:43:29,360 --> 00:43:31,720 Speaker 1: just hanging out with ions in it, which is a 758 00:43:31,760 --> 00:43:35,480 Speaker 1: potential battery. UM. And these researchers put, UM, put some 759 00:43:35,560 --> 00:43:40,640 Speaker 1: electrodes in there along with a very low power electronic device, 760 00:43:41,120 --> 00:43:45,480 Speaker 1: and UM the chamber produced enough power with these electrodes 761 00:43:45,520 --> 00:43:49,520 Speaker 1: to power the device to wire wirelessly transmit data. That's 762 00:43:49,520 --> 00:43:53,120 Speaker 1: pretty cool to to an external drive. Now again we're 763 00:43:53,120 --> 00:43:55,439 Speaker 1: talking about you know, we're not talking about stuff that's 764 00:43:55,520 --> 00:43:59,319 Speaker 1: that's advancing the power of batteries, but we are looking 765 00:43:59,320 --> 00:44:02,920 Speaker 1: at brand new applications that could that are really exciting. Yeah, 766 00:44:02,960 --> 00:44:05,399 Speaker 1: it's just but again, this isn't the thing that's going 767 00:44:05,480 --> 00:44:09,000 Speaker 1: to make your cell phone last longer. Probably probably not. 768 00:44:09,560 --> 00:44:12,279 Speaker 1: It's it's really really really low power, but it would 769 00:44:12,280 --> 00:44:15,440 Speaker 1: it would mostly be great for for medical advances in 770 00:44:15,640 --> 00:44:22,399 Speaker 1: um hearing aids. Yeah. So anyway, anyway, the advances we're 771 00:44:22,400 --> 00:44:25,680 Speaker 1: talking about for the most part, are again just refining 772 00:44:25,880 --> 00:44:28,919 Speaker 1: the technology that we already have. It may turn out 773 00:44:28,960 --> 00:44:31,239 Speaker 1: that we just have to find a different means of 774 00:44:31,280 --> 00:44:35,600 Speaker 1: generating electricity that goes away from this electrochemical model entirely 775 00:44:35,760 --> 00:44:39,319 Speaker 1: for us to get beyond this this bottleneck. Or if 776 00:44:39,360 --> 00:44:41,839 Speaker 1: one of these other like the if the lithium air 777 00:44:41,880 --> 00:44:44,320 Speaker 1: or sodium air batteries work out, or if the micro 778 00:44:44,400 --> 00:44:47,279 Speaker 1: battery works out, maybe maybe that will be that that 779 00:44:47,280 --> 00:44:49,840 Speaker 1: would be a huge leap ahead. And if either of those, 780 00:44:49,920 --> 00:44:54,359 Speaker 1: if any of those were any any more efficient chemical combination. Right. 781 00:44:54,440 --> 00:44:57,719 Speaker 1: So there, we're not saying it's impossible. We're just saying 782 00:44:57,719 --> 00:45:01,239 Speaker 1: that it's been several decades AIDS and we've only seen 783 00:45:01,280 --> 00:45:05,799 Speaker 1: incremental improvements. So don't be surprised if that stays the same. 784 00:45:06,360 --> 00:45:08,480 Speaker 1: If it doesn't stay the same, if we do have 785 00:45:08,600 --> 00:45:11,719 Speaker 1: this huge leap, that's gonna be awesome for everybody, and 786 00:45:11,719 --> 00:45:16,600 Speaker 1: that's what everyone wants. Just you know, be prepared to wait. Guys, 787 00:45:16,640 --> 00:45:19,400 Speaker 1: I hope you enjoyed this classic episode of text Stuff. 788 00:45:19,560 --> 00:45:22,280 Speaker 1: If you have any suggestions for future tech stuff topics, 789 00:45:22,600 --> 00:45:25,920 Speaker 1: reach out to me on Twitter or on Facebook. We 790 00:45:26,000 --> 00:45:29,320 Speaker 1: use the same handle at both locations. It is text 791 00:45:29,360 --> 00:45:32,440 Speaker 1: Stuff H s W. And I'll talk to you again 792 00:45:33,080 --> 00:45:41,200 Speaker 1: really soon. Text Stuff is an I Heart Radio production. 793 00:45:41,440 --> 00:45:44,239 Speaker 1: For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the i 794 00:45:44,360 --> 00:45:47,600 Speaker 1: Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to 795 00:45:47,640 --> 00:45:48,560 Speaker 1: your favorite shows.