SCIENCE IN THE NEWS DAILY

Nanometre 'Fuses' for High-Performance Batteries

from BBC News Online

Minuscule tubes coated with a chemical fuel can act as a power source with 100 times more electrical power by weight than conventional batteries.

As these nano-scale "fuses" burn, they drive an electrical current along their length at staggering speeds. The never-before-seen phenomenon could lead to a raft of energy applications.

Researchers reporting in Nature Materials say that unlike normal batteries, the nanotubes never lose their stored energy if left to sit. The team ... coated their nanotubes--cylinders just billionths of a metre across--with a chemical fuel known as cyclotrimethylene trinitramine.