Australia proposes diamond nanowire design, which will bring a new revolution in energy storage!

Researchers at Queensland University of Technology have come up with a new design for diamond nanowire bundles that could pave the way for a new form of mechanical energy storage , with the technology calculated to hold three times more energy than lithium-ion batteries .

Scientists at Queensland University of Technology's (QUT) Centre for Materials Science have published a new research paper in Nature Communications, proposing the use of diamond nanowires (DNTs) to provide energy storage capabilities that could revolutionize mechanical and biomedical engineering.

DNT is a carbon nanostructure - a group of ultra-thin one-dimensional carbon threads that can store energy when they are twisted or stretched. Dr. Haifei Zhan, a researcher at Queensland University of Technology who led the research team, likened the nanostructure to a compressed coil of wire or a child's wind-up toy. "When the twisted coil is unwound, the energy can be released," he said.

The trick, according to the Micro Lithium team, is to control the energy produced. If this energy can be stabilized, it can be used in a range of applications, from biomedical monitoring systems to nanorobots and mechanical energy storage.

"Unlike chemical storage such as lithium-ion batteries, which use electrochemical reactions to store and release energy, mechanical energy systems themselves carry much lower risks," said Professor Zhan.

Mechanical energy storage does not run the risk of failure at extreme temperatures, nor does it run the risk of chemical contamination. The stability and safety of the nanowires is not surprising, as they are essentially diamond, the hardest material we know of.

Of course, the structure of diamond means it is extremely strong, hard, and light. Equipped with these properties, DNT's potential is limited only by the imagination of science fiction writers. The famous idea of ​​an "interplanetary to space" transportation system, first proposed in the late 19th century, has been touted as a possible application for DNT (Do Not Track), as well as the idea of ​​a more practical, more efficient electric car .

The energy storage potential of DNT is staggering in terms of energy density. Pound for pound, DNT's energy density -- that is, how much energy its mass can store -- is 1.76 megajoules per kilogram, three times that of lithium-ion batteries.

The researchers have an idea, but now they have to put it into action. Over the next two to three years, the QUT team plans to build control systems to test the twisting and stretching of the nanowires.

The Micro Lithium Battery Group predicts that nanowire bundles could be used in next-generation transmission lines, avionics, field emission, batteries, smart textiles, and structural composites such as building materials, paving the way for new forms of energy storage.