We Could Use A Moore's Law For Rechargeable Battery Life

Well this is just cool...

Forgetful Scientists Accidentally Quadruple Lithium-Ion Battery Lifespan

Battery technology goes through periodic bouts of breakthroughs followed by long, long, periods of quiescence characterized by product development.

I like the article's focus on chemical elements -- lithium and aluminum.

I found this article while googling tips to conserve lithium-ion battery life.

Seek and ye shall find.

Karl Ziegler: "Consequences and Development of an Invention"

Karl Ziegler, German chemist (1898-1973)

Karl Ziegler, then director of the Max-Planck-Institute-for Coal Research, describing what he and co-workers discovered ten years prior to winning the 1963 Nobel Prize in Chemistry:

The catalyst is prepared simply by simultaneously pouring, with exclusion of air, two liquid materials into about two liters of a gasoline-like hydrocarbon, after which ethylene is introduced, while stirring. The gas is absorbed quickly; within an hour one can easily introduce 300-400 liters of ethylene into the two liters of liquid. At the same time, a solid substance precipitates, and can scarcely be stirred anymore. If the brown catalyst* is then destroyed, by the addition of some alcohol and by the introduction of air, the precipitate becomes snow-white and can be filtered off. In its final state it will accumulate in amounts of 300-500 g, as a dry, white powder.

~Karl Ziegler "Consequences and development of an invention"

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*The two co-catalysts were titanium and aluminum chlorides

Polyethylene had been known earlier. A British company, ICI, held patents for what they called "polythene" (hmm, maybe related to the Beatles' "plasticene"?), but ICI's polyethylene was different animal than Ziegler's polyethylene. The difference is at the atomic level. Though both plastics were polymers of ethylene, the older, inferior product was highly branched:

Ziegler's new process for making polyethylene essentially made perfectly linear chains of polymer with very little branching. The bulk properties of the two were markedly different. The density differences are akin to what one expects from trying to pack together a bunch of branches versus bunches of straight sticks.

Ziegler and his Institute became independently wealthy as the plastic age began in earnest.

Aluminum

Van der Krogt's piece on aluminum is so fascinating, and so thorough regarding the discovery and naming of the 13th element that I suggest people go there for those aspects. Coincidentally, Friedrich Wöhler was involved in aluminum's discovery.

Aluminum, once considered a precious metal, is the third most abundant element on earth, after silicon and oxygen. Aluminum was so dear at one time that the Washington Monument was capped with pyramidal shaped cast of it. link  It's still up there. Aluminum was only precious because it was so hard to make in quantity in a pure form. The invention of the electric dynamo by Siemens dropped the price a thousand-fold.

Aluminum reacts spontaneously with oxygen and yet, never completely. Aluminum exemplifies a metallic property called passivation. Passivation occurs when a metal coats itself with a thin layer of its own oxide, thus protecting its inner mass from attack. It's a bit like sacrificing your skin to your enemy in self defence. This property only works if the oxide layer has the same physical density as the underlying inner metal. Anodized aluminum is a related technique of passivation and decorative colors may be introduced. Iron rusts so easily because the initially formed layer of rust shrinks and cracks the surface, exposing more fresh metal underneath and so on and so forth.

Political passivation entails coating oneself with a thin skin of your enemy's element.