Bedford Driving Lessons

A nano-scale material developed in Britain may one day yield wafer-thin cellphones and light-weight, long-range electric cars powered by the roof, boot and doors, according to researchers. For now, the new technology – which is a patented mix of carbon fibre and polymer resin that can charge and release electricity just like a regular battery – has not gone beyond a successful laboratory experiment. But if scaled up, it could hold several advantages over existing energy sources for hybrid and electric cars, according to the scientists at Imperial College London who developed it. Lithium-ion batteries used in the current generation of plug-in vehicles are not only heavy, which adds to energy consumption, but also depend on dwindling supplies of the metal lithium, whose prices have risen steadily. The new material, while expensive to make, is entirely synthetic, which means that production would not be limited by availability of natural resources. Another plus: conventional batteries need chemical reactions to generate juice, a process that causes them to degrade over time and gradually lose the capacity to hold a charge. The carbon-polymer composite does not depend on chemistry, which not only means a longer life but a quicker charge as well. Because the material is composed of elements measured in billionths of a metre, “you don’t compromise the mechanical properties of the fibers,” explained Emile Greenhalgh, an engineer at Imperial College and one of the inventors. As hard a steel, it could in theory double as the body of the vehicle, cutting the weight by up to a third. More