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和多倫多大學的科學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.

阿爾伯塔大學化學家加布里埃爾·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。”

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，電池無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，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拓展到實際應用中。