As a dedicated web-reader, in recent years I’ve been hearing more and more news about the potential applications of carbon nanotubes, specifically in laptop batteries. Traditional lithium ion batteries are due to be phased out with, starting this year, by hydrogen fuel cells which promise to drastically increase the operational lifespan of laptops from ~5 hours to in the region of 40 hours. However, these batteries have to be physically topped-up with methanol as they cannot be recharged in the traditional manner.
Recently the potential of carbon nanotube technology to offer an alternative form of battery has come to light. Offering a simular charge to standard lithium ion batteries, but only requiring minutes, rather than hours to charge fully, carbon nanotube ultracapacitors offer an alternative form of energy storage.
Both new battery developments have their disadvantages (hydrogen fuel cells needing to be refilled and nanotube ultracapacitors having a relatively small charge capacity), but a combination of the two technologies would provide the instant charge & use ability or nanotubes using a conventional power outlet with the optional staying power of (the more difficultly replacable) hydrogen fuel cell which would only be used when the nanotube battery had been depleted. This would drasitcally reduce the necessity of the continual fuel cell replacements associated with a hydrogen-only solution and would allow for extremely rapid recharge of the nanotube battery when an electrical outlet became available. This combination may finally allow laptops to become what they were originally intended for-computers that are relatively independant of location and availability of an electrical outlet for them to be CONSTANTLY plugged into in order for them to provide desktop replacement computing power on a timetable that allows people to actually complete the work they started!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_nanotube (wikki)http://www.tgdaily.com/2006/03/08/mit_cnt_replace_batteries/ (carbon nanotubes as batteries)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3031870.stm (hydrogen fuel cells)