The breakthrough could lead to everday batteries that last a lifetime (Picture: Getty Images)

In the world of glorious accidents this could well prove to be the greatest,

Scientists who were messing around with a gel have accidentally worked out a way to make batteries last forever.

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The researchers at the University of California at Irvine realised that by coating a brittle component in batteries in a shell they can be recharged (or cycled) hundreds of thousands of times and not lose any power.

The components – nanowires – don’t usually deal well with charging in a typical lithium battery and usually wear out after 7,000 cycles or so.


But with a manganese dioxide shell they lost no power despite being cycled more than 200,000 times in three months.



This could lead to laptop, phone and tablet batteries that last forever. It might also benefit commercial batteries in cars and spacecraft.

It was stumbled upon by a PHD student who was ‘playing around’ (Picture: Getty Images)

The person to thank for the breakthrough, is Mya Le Thai, a PHD student at the university.

Reginald Penner, chairman of UCI’s chemistry department, said she was ‘playing around’ when she coated the wires in the thin gel layer.

He told The Inquirer: ‘She discovered that just by using this gel she could cycle it hundreds of thousands of times without losing any capacity.

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‘That was crazy, because these things typically die in dramatic fashion after 5,000 or 6,000 or 7,000 cycles at most.’

Mya said the coat helped the nanowire electrode hold its shape much better, therefore making it more relaible.

She added: ‘This research proves that a nanowire-based battery electrode can have a long lifetime and that we can make these kinds of batteries a reality.’

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