Re-inventing Edison's NiFe battery

The Nickel-Iron battery that Thomas Edison patented in 1901 has been redesigned recently for use in electric cars. The new design has been found to have almost as much energy storage as the batteries in the Nissan Leaf. However, it has also been shown that the NiFe battery can charge faster than the Lithium batteries used currently in electric vehicles and hybrids.
More importantly, NiFe batteries should be quite a bit cheaper than their Li ion counterparts due to the relative abundance of Nickel over Lithium in nature. Plus, these batteries aren't flammable, whereas Lithium batteries are.

Edison’s original design, patented in 1901, calls for two metal electrodes. A mixture of iron compounds and carbon gives off electricity that flows to a sheet of nickel, discharging the battery. Though hardy, it didn’t usher in the revolution in electric cars that Edison had hoped for. Ultimately it was eclipsed by other technologies, including the lithium-ion battery, that stored and delivered more energy.
To resurrect Edison’s battery, Dai and colleagues reshaped its electrodes at nanometer scales. Instead of simply mixing iron and carbon, the researchers grew iron pellets on top of atom-thick sheets of carbon chicken wire called graphene. Tiny plates of nickel perched atop carbon tubes formed the other electrode.
This attention to detail united each metal and its carbon counterpart with chemical bonds that provided a superhighway for electrons. A small prototype battery charged in about two minutes and discharged within 30 seconds, nearly 1,000 times faster than traditional nickel-iron designs. That speediness could be useful for juicing up a car in a hurry or storing and releasing the energy flowing through the larger power grid.

This new battery design still has a ways to go in order to be a truly viable battery for use in vehicles. The researchers need to show that these batteries can be scaled up in size and maintain their advantages over lithium batteries. They also need to keep up with the developing advances in lithium battery technologies.

Sources:
H. Wang et al. An ultrafast nickel-iron battery from strongly coupled inorganic nanoparticle/nanocarbon hybrid materials. Nature Communications. doi:10.1038/ncomms1921 Link

Morning Run.

Out for my run this morning along one of my favorite paths.

Dreams and Dedication.

“Keep your dreams alive. Understand to achieve anything requires faith and belief in yourself, vision, hard work, determination, and dedication. Remember all things are possible for those who believe.”

Gail Devers

The problem with people is that they spend too much time dreaming and not enough time doing things to better themselves. If you're not doing one thing every day to better yourself, then you aren't doing nearly enough. It's almost a matter of life and death to have dreams. If you don't have a dream to work towards, you may as well be an empty shell, just stumbling through life, going to work every day for someone else to make their dreams come true. That doesn't sound like much fun does it? Dreams don't have to be as grandiose as starting your own business, it can be far more personal, such as finally losing that extra weight, or going back to school to earn that degree. It could be to learn a musical instrument, or how to be a better photographer. The point is to not allow yourself to be held back by fears, just make a plan and get to it.

My problem right now is that I have so many dreams that it is almost overwhelming. I don't know which ones to focus on first. I want to get in shape, start a business, finally meet a decent girl and start a life. Each in itself is a very large undertaking. I've got about 5 different viable business ideas as well, of which I can only pick one. I want to teach more, learn more, and give more. The reason I started this blog is to try and focus all of these things through exploration of everything and of life in general.

A walk in the park.

I got inspired to take my Cybershot "toy" camera out, so I took a walk in the rain to see what I could find. This was one of the better shots, completely untouched except for a little cropping around the bottom of the shot.

A couple quick videos that I shot of my cats going a bit crazy.

Most of my photos are snapshots. I do not yet have a "real camera". I would love a DSLR, but it is not in the budget. Most of the time I just use the camera on my cell phone. I've got an HTC Evo 4g right now, which has a decent flash and an 8mp camera. There are a few options in the software; I can play some with isos, but being a phone, it just doesn't have a ton of options or a really good zoom (only digital zooming).
The photo in my last post of the lily was taken with my cell phone. I think it came out pretty decent for just a raw snapshot with the default auto setting enabled. Comments?

Photography

Spring is here and that means that I'm spending more time outside and I tend to take my camera everywhere I go. I took this photo with my cell phone, however, and it is completely untouched and unfiltered. Enjoy and remember that tomorrow is Earth Day.

One of my favorite emerging artists that got his start through slam poetry and YouTube is George Watsky. If you haven't heard of him, I suggest that you give him a try.  Most of his stuff is not safe for work, just as an FYI.

Day One

I guess that this is day one for me. I'm going to try blogging for the first time here and see how it goes. I am a firm believer in living life to its fullest, and not taking no for an answer. I don't believe in luck, fate, or prayers. Life is whatever you make it; if you want something, you'd better get off your ass and take it because no one is going to give you anything for free.

I have no idea what direction this blog is going to go just yet. When I figure it out, I will let y'all know.