Death knell for the Energizer Rabbit?

Many new batteries being tested for use in electric cars require materials such as nickel and cadmium that can be expensive and toxic enough to pose potential environmental threats. Others operate at temperatures above 600[degrees]F and utilize complicated insulation systems.

Chemists at Clark University have developed a better battery that avoids these disadvantages. Their aluminum and sulfur battery is lightweight, operates at room temperature, and is made from low-cost materials that do not pose the environmental threats of nickel, cadmium, and lead batteries. "This appears to be a very promising battery offering high-energy. density and environmental compatibility, while using low-cost materials," notes Stuart Licht, who developed the battery with colleague Dharmasena Peramunage.

Sulfur and aluminum have chemical, electrical, and physical properties, including light weight, that make them attractive battery materials, but the combination of sulfur and aluminum had not been tried before in a room-temperature battery. The Licht battery uses sulfur as the cathode, which supplies positive electrical current. The approach was not attempted previously...