Lucent Technologies Bell Labs has become involved with the reinvention of the battery by shrinking electrodes to nanometer scales.

The research group is working with next-generation telecoms and nanotechnology developer mPhase Technologies on a reserve battery prototype that relies on a nanotechnology-based architecture.

The Bell Labs-developed nano-architecture was refined based on feedback from potential military customers like the U.S. Army Research Laboratory.

mPhase said it is developing a new generation of reserve power cells, which could store reserve power for decades and generate electric current virtually on demand.

The prototype battery is based on a Bell Labs discovery that liquid droplets of electrolyte will stay in a dormant state atop nanotextured surfaces until stimulated to flow, thereby triggering a reaction producing electricity, the companies explained.

The electrowetting process can permit precise control and activation of the batteries when required, yielding a very long shelf life.

Future batteries based on this technology have the potential to deliver far longer shelf life and better storage capacity than existing battery technology, the companies concluded.

A detailed discussion of this work appears in the February issue of Scientific American Magazine.

Bell Labs and mPhase have worked together in the past on a "nanograss" surface being used in a reserve battery application by mPhase.

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