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True, but we can't be sure that no breakthrough in fuel cells or supercapacitors will make batteries obsolete.
by mrob 9y ago
True, but we can't be sure that no breakthrough in fuel cells or supercapacitors will make batteries obsolete.
- TeMPOraL 9y agoWe can't be sure that there won't be a breakthrough that will make all our phones and cars run on adenosine triphosphate, like everything else on this planet. But right now we have to work with what we have, and whatever knowledge and experience we thus gain will likely be useful post-unexpected-breakthroughs anyway.
- mrob 9y agoAccording to Wikipedia: ATP + H2O → AMP + PPi ΔG° = −45.6 kJ/mol (−10.9 kcal/mol) And at 507.18g/mol + 18g/mol for the water, that's only about 87J/g, which is worse than lithium ion batteries.
- TeMPOraL 9y agoIn terms of energy density, maybe, but the magic of ATP is the whole process of creating it and the precision with which it is used to power things :).
- thriftwy 9y agoATP is not a storage medium. That's like withing to make cars run on electricity. Duh! Generating that electricity on demand is still the hard part.
- skrebbel 9y agoYes we can, because "breakthroughs" don't happen over night. There's often at least a decade between the first lab result and wide industrialization of technologies like these. That means you can use today's lab results to predict the "breakthroughs" in 10 years. I'm no expert whatsoever but if there's no promising lab results currently for lighter batteries than lithium, then I doubt they'll be replaced any time soon.