New "Spin Battery" Storing Energy into Nano-Magnets

Until recently, the only affordable and feasible energy storage known to man has been chemical. Our current batteries, whether they power our gadgets or our homes, transform the electrical energy into chemical reactions and vice-versa.

US Researchers from the University of Miami and Japanese researchers from the Universities of Tokyo and Tohoku invented a new type of battery that could revolutionize the way we think of a battery in all the aspects, from their charging speed to their capacity and discharging power.

Their product is called “spin battery”, and, although for the moment it has the width of a human hair, and cannot even light a LED, offers tremendous possibilities. The spin battery is charged by applying a powerful magnetic field to nano-magnets contained in a device called “magnetic tunnel junction”, or MTJ. The technology could be used successfully in making new data storage devices, such as hard drives with no moving parts.

“We had anticipated the effect, but the device produced a voltage over a hundred times too big and for tens of minutes, rather than for milliseconds as we had expected. That this was counterintuitive is what lead to our theoretical understanding of what was really going on.”, University of Miami Physicist Stewart E. Barnes said.

So, ladies and gentlemen, the new magnetic battery can store more power, charge amazingly fast, and deliver much more than the classic chemical ones. And it’s even more environmentally-friendly than the chemicals! Now, I’d be curious what will be the time until the magnetic battery technology will reach our electric cars, charging them in an instant, while we drive home and pass by a charging point. Am I dreaming? Maybe not for long.