A recent discovery by a scientist in California may help batteries last forever.

 

    

From VOA learning English. This is the technology report. Mia Le Tai is a scientist at the University of California, Irvine. She recently discovered a process that could result in batteries lasting forever. 

Ty spoke with VOA, learning English about her discovery. She said she was not happy with the lithiumion batteries in her wireless devices. She said that over time they lose their ability to fully charge. 

She said this is because the batteries use nanowires. The small wires are extremely thin. A human hair is 1000 times thicker than a nanowire, for example. As a result, nanowires break easily. But they are also effective carriers of electricity. 

Ty had a theory nanowires might last longer if covered. She and her team at Irvine experimented with many coverings. They found success with PMMA, a hard, clear plastic material. The nanowires covered with PMMA cycled through charges 28 times more than uncovered nanowires. 

The PMMA covered wires showed no evidence of damage after 200,000 cycles. The results suggest that batteries with covered nanowires might last forever. For VOA learning English. This is the last technology report for learning English TV. 

But we are not going away. We will continue to bring you videos to help you learn American English. Go to LearningEnglish voainws.com to find new materials and to look for past Learning English TV reports. 

I'm Carolyn Prasuti. Thank you for watching and learning with VOA Learning English.