Poor battery life is the number one complaint when it comes to smartphones and laptops. As a wireless society, having to tether ourselves down to power up our gadgets seems more and more a nuisance. And while researchers are looking into wireless charging, if batteries were better we would have to worry less.

電池壽命短是智能手機(jī)和筆記本電腦的頭號難題。在無線的社會里，給設(shè)備充電時用繩子束縛住自己似乎越來越討厭。雖然研究人員正在尋找無線充電的辦法，但如果有更好的電池我們的擔(dān)憂也可以減輕了。

Now, a new technology promises just that. Researchers from the University of California, Irvine, have invented a nanowire-based battery that can be recharged hundreds of thousands of times, a significant leap towards a battery that doesn’t require replacing.

現(xiàn)在一個新的技術(shù)的就可以做到。來自加利福尼亞大學(xué)歐文分校的研究人員發(fā)明了一種納米線電池，該電池可以充電幾十萬次而不用更換，這是電池發(fā)展的一個顯著飛躍。

Nanowires possess several ideal characteristics for electric storage and transmission. They are highly conductive and thousands of times thinner than a human hair, which means they can be arranged to provide a large surface area for electron transfer. Unfortunately, nanowires are usually very fragile and don’t do well after repeated charging and discharging.

納米線具有電存儲和傳輸?shù)娜舾衫硐胩匦�。它們具有高�?dǎo)電性并且比人類的頭發(fā)細(xì)幾千倍，這意味著它們可以提供一個巨大表面區(qū)域供電子轉(zhuǎn)移。不幸的是，納米線通常是非常脆弱的，并且會在反復(fù)充放電后降低性能。

The researchers, whose findings are published in the American Chemical Society’s Energy Letters, have coated gold nanowires in manganese dioxide and cocooned them in a Plexiglas-like gel. This combination keeps all the properties of the nanowires’ intact and makes them resistant to fractures.

研究者給金質(zhì)納米線包了一層殼，并用樹脂玻璃之類的凝膠薄層進(jìn)行包裹，這項(xiàng)研究結(jié)果發(fā)表在《美國化學(xué)學(xué)會·能源通訊》上。這種結(jié)合使納米線的所有性能保持不變，并使其耐折損。

Mya Le Thai, the lead study author, has charged and discharged the battery up to 200,000 times without breaking the nanowires and without loss of capacity.

這項(xiàng)研究的帶頭人妙萊泰給電池進(jìn)行了200000次充電和放電的操作，而納米線并沒有破損，容量也沒有損失。

“Mya was playing around, and she coated this whole thing with a very thin gel layer and started to cycle it,” said senior author Reginald Penner, chair of UCI’s chemistry department, in a statement. “She discovered that just by using this gel, she could cycle it hundreds of thousands of times without losing any capacity.”

“妙萊泰不停在玩，她給金質(zhì)納米線包了一層殼并開始給納米線充放電，” 加利福尼亞大學(xué)歐文分校化學(xué)系主任，資深作家雷金納德在一份聲明中說�！八�發(fā)現(xiàn)，只要用這種膠，她就可以充放電成百上千次而不失去任何容量�！�

“That was crazy,” he added, “because these things typically die in dramatic fashion after 5,000 or 6,000 or 7,000 cycles at most.”

“這太瘋狂了，”他補(bǔ)充說，“因?yàn)樽疃嘟?jīng)過5000、6000或7000個(充電)周期，這些物質(zhì)一般都會明顯失去作用�！�

The researchers believe that the combination of the PMMA (plexiglass-like) gel electrolyte and the magnesium oxide gives flexibility and structure to the nanowires, preventing cracking and thus extending their operational life.

研究人員認(rèn)為，PMMA（有機(jī)玻璃等）凝膠電解質(zhì)和氧化鎂的結(jié)合物為納米線提供了可以防止其開裂的靈活性和結(jié)構(gòu)，從而延長其使用壽命。

“The coated electrode holds its shape much better, making it a more reliable option,” Thai said. “This research proves that a nanowire-based battery electrode can have a long lifetime and that we can make these kinds of batteries a reality.”

“被涂層的電極維持自身形態(tài)的能力要強(qiáng)得多，因此是更可靠的選項(xiàng)，” 妙萊泰說。“這項(xiàng)研究證明，納米線為基礎(chǔ)的電池電極可以有很長的壽命，我們可以使這種類型的電池的成為現(xiàn)實(shí)。”