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Frame from The Battery That Refuses to Explode | NOVA Plays via YouTube's privacy-enhanced embed

The Battery That Refuses to Explode | NOVA

NOVA PBS Official
Demos
YouTube
Cited on HN 9 times, 2017–2024, never outright recommended score 0
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

Cited repeatedly as a quick visual demonstration that solid-state or polymer batteries can survive abuse without igniting.

A short NOVA excerpt in which David Pogue abuses a Tufts-developed battery by cutting and damaging it, and it keeps working without catching fire. It comes from the documentary 'Search for the Super Battery'.

“Video shows it continuing to provide power while being sliced into pieces with scissors” (HN, 2019)

9 citations · Demos · partly dated

9 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@clouddrover Mar 2019 Cites it
on HN thread Germany's car industry faces a perfect storm
The next step for batteries is making solid-state batteries work commercially for their superior energy density and safety: [this video] 24M has developed what they call a semi-solid-state battery and have delivered batteries with a capacity of 280 wh per kilogram: [link] They think they can get to 350 wh/kg by 2020, which is a dramatic improvement over current EV batteries.
Solid-state batteries for energy density and safety
@wlesieutre Jun 2019 Cites it
on HN thread A Glass Battery That Keeps Getting Better?
Read more
The really important bit, comparison to lithium ion: >She did say that large battery banks that might be spun off from this research stand to not only have higher capacity, but also be substantially lighter than lithium ions. Although, she adds, perhaps the greatest weight savings will come not from comparing one battery cell's mass with another. “The biggest difference would be that you don’t have to have the same stainless steel bunkers in each of the cells,” she says. Not flammable is a big deal in battery tech. We try to pack more and more energy into smaller and smaller cells, so continuing to improve the capacity makes inadvertently releasing all that energy even more dangerous. Here's another cool project working on that problem with a solid polymer electrolyte. Video shows it continuing to provide power while being sliced into pieces with scissors: [this video]
Solid polymer electrolyte battery keeps working while sliced with scissors
@clouddrover Nov 2020 Cites it
on HN thread First Responders Unprepared for Electric Vehicle Fires: Report
> emergency crews can spray water on the battery Here's what happens when you spray water on the battery: [link] > every battery cell could have a built in discharge circuit A better idea is solid state batteries. They can be damaged without catching on fire: [this video] [link] And explosive fuses can be used to disconnect the battery automatically after a crash: [link]
Solid-state batteries can be damaged without catching fire
@peutetre Apr 2024 Cites it
on HN thread Tesla to lay off more than 10% of its staff
With solid state batteries you can puncture them, cut them, and shoot them with a bullet. It's much harder to make them catch fire and they keep working: [this video] [link]
Solid-state batteries survive puncture, cutting and bullets

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