It’s not a battery yet. But Washington State University researchers have created a material that can store unprecedented amounts of energy.
The researchers showed how mechanical energy can be stored as chemical energy in the material that was in a small diamond anvil cell.
Using similar pressures to what is found in the center of the earth, the researchers created this new material that could one day be used to create super batteries.
“If you think about it, it is the most condensed form of energy storage outside of nuclear energy,” says Choong-Shik Yoo, a WSU chemistry professor and lead author of results published in the journal Nature Chemistry.
While the science is still fundamental, it’s still fun to consider what the applications would be:
- new energetic material or fuel
- an energy storage device
- super oxidizing materials
- high-temperature superconductors
The material was made of xenon difluoride and was sandwiched between two small diamond anvils. When put under high-pressure conditions, it became a 3-D metallic network structure. It basically squeezed the molecules into this new shape, so its mechanical energy could be stored as chemical energy in the newly formed bonds.
Credit: Washington State University
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