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+--- Thread: The Battery that lasts forever (/thread-31422.html)
The Battery that lasts forever - Henlus - 01-16-2026
A student “playing around” may have cracked the biggest battery problem ever
In 2015, a PhD student at UC Irvine, Mya Le Thai, got tired of batteries dying. Not just phone batteries, but the fact that all batteries slowly break down and become toxic waste.
While researching capacitors, she tried something outside her plan. She took ultra-thin gold nanowires, coated them with manganese dioxide, then wrapped them in a flexible gel similar to Plexiglas. She was just experimenting.
Then she started testing.
Normal lithium batteries degrade after 300–500 charge cycles. Good ones last maybe 5,000.
Thai’s battery kept going.
10,000 cycles.
50,000 cycles.
100,000 cycles.
200,000 cycles.
It still worked like new.
Her supervisor didn’t believe it at first. Batteries are supposed to fail. The materials crack as they expand and shrink during charging. That is why batteries die.
The gel coating solved that. It let the nanowires flex without breaking. No cracks. No degradation.
If this were a phone battery, you could charge it every day for over 500 years before it weakened.
The implications are huge:
-Massive reduction in toxic battery waste
-Batteries that outlast phones, laptops, cars, and even medical implants
-Long-life energy storage for solar and power grids
So why isn’t this in your phone yet?
Because lab breakthroughs are not products. Gold nanowires are expensive. Manufacturing at scale is hard. Energy density is lower than lithium-ion. Existing factories are built for old battery tech. These are engineering and cost problems, not failures of the idea.
The research was published in 2016 and is still influencing battery science today, especially for grid storage and long-life systems where durability matters more than size.
The key point is this: Mya Le Thai proved battery degradation is not inevitable. A problem accepted for over a century was shown to be solvable.
Her battery isn’t on the market yet.
But the door is open.
We now know batteries don’t have to die in a few years. They can last decades… even centuries.
And that changes everything.
RE: The Battery that lasts forever - FarmKing - 01-22-2026
This story is good, but people misunderstand it.
Doing something small in a lab is not the same as using it everywhere.
The scientist solved only one small part of the problem, not the whole battery.
For a battery to be useful, it must be safe, cheap, strong, and easy to make.
The work is important, but it does not mean phones can use it now. Maybe, later
RE: The Battery that lasts forever - Manihot - 01-22-2026
This battery is not like a phone battery.
It is more like a water tank that can be filled and emptied many times but holds little water. Think super capacitors.
It lasts very long, but it does not store much power.
That makes it good for big machines and electricity storage, not phones.
RE: The Battery that lasts forever - CassavaBoss - 01-22-2026
Gold works well, but gold is too expensive.
Making billions of batteries with gold is not realistic.
RE: The Battery that lasts forever - YoungAgropreneur - 01-22-2026
Phone batteries must be small and strong.
A battery that lasts forever but is big and weak is useless in a phone.
People want slim phones more than batteries that last forever.
RE: The Battery that lasts forever - GreenVet - 01-22-2026
The biggest benefit is less waste.
Big batteries used for power storage are thrown away often.
If batteries last many years, we mine less, throw away less, and protect the land.
RE: The Battery that lasts forever - MamaGreens - 01-22-2026
Medical machines are the real target.
Pacemakers and body implants use batteries.
Changing those batteries needs surgery.
A long-lasting battery can save lives.
RE: The Battery that lasts forever - Techie Farmer - 01-22-2026
Eight years is very short in science.
Lithium batteries took many decades to reach the market.
New ideas take time to grow.
RE: The Battery that lasts forever - The Farmer - 01-22-2026
This battery fits electricity storage.
Power stations care about safety and long life, not small size.
A battery that lasts many years is perfect for solar and wind power.
RE: The Battery that lasts forever - Farm-sultan - 01-22-2026
Great move. Progress needs patience.
One small idea can lead to many improvements later.
Development happens step by step.
RE: The Battery that lasts forever - FarmLady - 01-24-2026
The real success is not a phone battery.
It is showing that limits can be challenged.
A student proved that new thinking can change science.
That inspiration may matter more than any product.
RE: The Battery that lasts forever - Farmqueen - 01-24-2026
@cassava boss Gold is expensive, yes. But new ideas often start expensive and later, cheaper materials are found.
The idea matters more than the first material used. Remember that silicon was once very expensive.