Human cells are inspiring the next generation of energy storage.
A new ion superhighway modeled after human cells could speed our batteries way up. Digging out a nanochannel for charged ions turned a "rat's nest" into a superfast conductor. These materials were already decent conductors, making this an even larger improvement. Scientists in the Pacific Northwest are using features of nature's chemistry to imitate a switch used by the human body. By lining up molecules that either grab or push away water, scientists can create logic gates like those used in circuitry and computing, opening paths where charged atoms called ions can stream through very, very fast. This is good news, and it's also an example of what happens when we honor the complexity of what the body does. A new paper on the study—written by authors from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California, and Washington State University in rural southeastern Washington—appears now in the journal Wiley Advanced Materials. One of the authors, scientific engineer Terry McAfee, died in September at age 37. The paper is dedicated to him. In their experiment, the team of five coauthors used knowledge of body chemistry to build a network of nanoparticles in gel form, capitalizing on how these materials in nature can "swell" to accommodate passage of charged ions. Water and ions are, of course, essential in the human body—our bodies conduct a great deal of electrical energy and rely…