By John Mahoney, 11:42 AM on Tue Jul 29 2008, 3,965 views (Edit, to draft, Top, Slurp)

Copy this whole post to another site

Slurp cancel

select site advertising consumerist deadspin defamer fleshbot gay fleshbot gawker gizmodo idolator io9 jalopnik jezebel kotaku lifehacker valleywag artists gawkershop

Researchers at UT Austin have devised a new way to create lithium iron phosphate—the compound inside high-density Li-ion batteries being developed for cars and power tools—that uses microwaves to cut costs. The new method requires lower temperatures (300° C rather than 700°) and less time to fabricate the phosphate via the nuking process—just like throwing that Tombstone in the m-wave rather than the oven. The tech probably won't trickle down into laptop batteries, which use a lithium cobalt oxide that isn't capable of the quick bursts of current needed to get something like the Chevy Volt rolling. All the better to crash your Tesla with. [Technology Review]