A transparent battery could replace the glass windows of the houses.
The newly developed clear batteries still have a low power level, but may already add autonomy to the batteries of the Smart glass (like the outgoing Apple one) or electric cars.
La maggior parte della ricerca sulle batterie si concentra sull’aumento della potenza o della densità di energia, cioè di quanta energia può essere immagazzinata in un determinato volume.
Hironobu Minowa and his colleagues at the Japanese communications giant NTT thought instead of focusing on making a battery as inconspicuous as possible.
Il team ha creare nuove versioni di tutte le componenti della batteria per ridurre l’assorbimento e la riflessione della luce. Il risultato è una batteria trasparente delle dimensioni di un foglio di carta A4: sembra proprio un vetro.
The capacity of the transparent battery still has very little capacity, one thousandth of conventional batteries: 1 milliampere (mAh) against more than 1000. On the other hand, it lets 69% of the light through.
The transparent battery capacity is enough, however, to power an LED or digital clock, says Minowa. And since its creation, in just 11 months it has already doubled its capacity and tripled its transparency: we can well hope.
A hand to the internet of things
The more homes are filled with sensors and devices (to optimize lights, temperature and any other aspect), the more this transparent battery technology can help clean up plugs and cables everywhere.
Transparent batteries, the limits to be overcome
Currently the team has not been able to make transparent batteries wider than an A4 sheet, but obviously already now it is possible to put various panels together to cover larger surfaces.
However, such transparent batteries will be very useful for all devices that need the two key factors: energy and transparency.
