一種永遠不會沒電的“量子電池”

A team of scientists from the universities of Alberta and Toronto have laid out theblueprints for a "quantum battery" that never loses its charge.

加拿大阿爾伯塔大學(xué)和多倫多大學(xué)的科學(xué)家團隊為一種永遠不會沒電的“量子電池”制定了研發(fā)計劃。

To be clear, this battery doesn't exist yet — but if they figure out how to build it, it could be a revolutionary breakthrough in energy storage.

需要明確的是，這種電池目前還不存在，但如果他們找到了制造它的方法，這可能會是能源存儲領(lǐng)域的革命性突破。

"The batteries that we are more familiar with — like the lithium-ion battery that powers your smartphone — rely on classical electrochemical principles, whereas quantum batteries rely solely on quantum mechanics," University of Alberta chemist Gabriel Hanna said in a statement.

阿爾伯塔大學(xué)化學(xué)家加布里埃爾·漢納在一份聲明中表示：“我們更熟悉的電池依靠的是傳統(tǒng)的電化學(xué)原理，例如為智能手機供電的鋰離子電池，而量子電池僅僅依靠量子力學(xué)。”

Dark State

暗態(tài)

A paper describing the research was published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry C. in July. The battery works by harnessing the power of "excitonic energy" — the state in which an electron absorbs sufficiently charged photons of light.

記錄該研究的論文發(fā)表在7月的《物理化學(xué)雜志》上。這種電池利用“激子能量”來供電，激子即電子充分吸收帶電光子的狀態(tài)。

The researchers found that their resulting battery model should be "highly robust to energy losses," thanks to the fact that their battery is prepared inside a "dark state" where it cannot exchange energy — by absorbing or releasing photons — with its surroundings.

研究人員發(fā)現(xiàn)，他們提出的電池模型應(yīng)該“在能量損失方面具有高穩(wěn)健性”，這是因為他們的電池是在“暗態(tài)”中準備的，而在這種狀態(tài)下，電池?zé)o法通過吸收或釋放光子與周圍環(huán)境交換能量。

Large Charge

大量電荷

By breaking down this "dark state" quantum network, the researchers claim the battery could be able to discharge and release energy in the process.

研究人員表示，通過打破這種“暗態(tài)”量子網(wǎng)絡(luò)，電池就可以在這個過程中放電并釋放能量。

But the team has yet to come up with viable ways of doing so. They will also have to figure out a way to scale the technology for real-world applications as well.

但是該團隊還沒有找到實現(xiàn)這一過程的可行方法，而且他們還需要想辦法把這項技術(shù)拓展到實際應(yīng)用中。