A step forward in battery technology: Car body parts can be used as batteries | News in brief

According to the researchers, the invention can be used immediately in mobile phones.

A Swedish group of researchers has achieved a breakthrough in battery technology, says the Swede Dagens Nyheter newspaper. The study has been published in the journal Advanced Material.

Researchers have succeeded in modifying carbon fiber material in such a way that it can be charged with electricity. The material is as strong as aluminum, but even lighter.

With the help of the new material, for example, parts of the car, such as the roof, doors, hood and tailgate, could be used like a battery. The same applies to the metal parts of the seats in airplanes, for example.

According to the researchers, the technology is so ready that it could be used immediately in devices that require little power, such as mobile phones. Someone just has to build a factory.

Electric cars require so much power that the properties of carbon fiber material are not yet sufficient. Instead, it could be used as auxiliary power, for example, for the needs of the car’s air conditioning, radio and lighting. In this way, the consumption of the actual battery could be reduced.

In the studies, the new battery material lasted at least a thousand times of charging without the capacity starting to decline, said a professor at the Gothenburg-based Chalmers University of Technology Leif Asp.

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