Image: The scientists at IWS have optimized the design of anode and cathode for lithium-sulfur batteries.
Researchers have developed a lithium-sulfur battery with a significantly increased lifespan—which could help make electric vehicles more attractive to consumers.
Lithium-sulfur batteries are more powerful and less expensive to manufacture than lithium-ion batteries, but they suffer from a limited lifespan. In an attempt to increase this lifespan, the team designed the battery with an anode made of a silicon-carbon compound instead of the typical metallic lithium, which improved stability. The cathode is made from elemental sulfur, and so costs less to manufacture than the conventional cobalt cathodes. The result was a button-cell battery with a lifespan of up to 1400 cycles, compared to the 200 cycles of current options.
According to Dr. Holger Althues, head of the research team, the new batteries could also have applications in smartphone and could even help to make electric flying vehicles a reality one day.
Bracelet For Human Rights Workers Sends Kidnapping Alerts To Facebook and Twitter
Bracelet Alarm Natalia Project, Civil Rights Defenders
Activists and aid workers who document government abuses or monitor elections often risk abduction by those who oppose their work. Now one organization has developed a gadget to help.
Stockholm-based Civil Rights Defenders is distributing a bracelet that sends out "Help!" messages when its wearer activates it, or if someone pulls the bracelet off its wearer forcefully, the BBC reported. The bracelet has a GPS tracker and will send information about the wearer's identity and location to nearby workers who could come to the rescue. The Civil Rights Defenders headquarters also gets a notice.
At the same time, the bracelet posts messages to Twitter and Facebook, which Civil Rights Defenders says will make repressive regimes warier of garnering international condemnation for kidnapping activists.
The advocacy group hopes to give out 55 bracelets within the next year and a half.
Civil Rights Defenders says the bracelet was inspired by the case of Natalia Estemirova. Estemirova documented human rights abuses in Chechnya in the northern Caucaus region. In 2009, she was abducted and shot in the head.
Interested folks can sign up to get alerts from the Civil Rights Defenders bracelets. People may also donate to the program.
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