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Technology Stocks : VALENCE TECHNOLOGY (VLNC) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tickertype who wrote (1456)	11/29/1997 10:32:00 AM
From: John Curtis	Respond to of 27311

To All: While we're waiting, I ran across an article in the Nov. 22nd issue of Science News, page 324, entitled Material may help batteries hold a recharge. Here's the jist of it: Of what do electronics-laden consumers dream? A cheap, compact battery that lasts a long time, holds up well even after repeated rechargings, and is environmentally friendly. Now, researchers from the University of Texas as Austin have come up with a substance that may serve as a cathode for a battery that fills the bill. the new material, called a manganese oxyiodide, may solve a variety of problems that plague recharge-able batteries. Many researchers have tried various manganese oxides as cathode materials, because they are cheaper and less toxic than cobalt, but have found that changes in the crystalline structures of these substances often cause problems, says Arumugam Manthiram, a materials scientist at the university. Each cycle of discharging and recharging alters the volume of a cathode, distorting its crystal structure and interfering with its ability to hold a charge. Manthiram's manganese oxyiodide, however, has a nearly amorphous structure that's less susceptible to the stresses of charging. Tests show that the substance can be recharged fully, even after 40 cycles of charging and discharging. Indeed, the material shows a slight increase in its ability to hold a charge after repeated rechargings. Manthiram says the amorphous nature of manganese oxyiodide may alow atoms to rearrange themselves each time the battery is recharged. The article also states Manganese oxyiodide is made in a low-temperatur, solution-based process that offers advantages over the high-temperature processes used to prduce other cathode materials. Michael Thackeray of Argonne National Laboratory states, "This material seems to solve some of the structural instability problems associated with manganese oxide electrodes, and it provides an unusually high recharge capacity at low current rates." Just some food for thought. Regards! John~