Small Electronics, Like Small Children, May Someday Run on Sugar
It’s probably a touch premature to start shoving sugar cubes into the back of portable electronics, but a new breakthrough from Virginia Tech might well make the sugar-powered battery a mainstream reality. Researchers at the school published their findings in Tuesday’s Nature Communications journal, highlighting energy-dense batteries that could power devices in as little as three years, if things go according to plan. Why sugar? Well, for starters, it’s a lot cheaper and safer, without the sorts of chemicals that make standard batteries flammable and, as some unfortunate souls have discovered, potentially explosive.