Comment by hannasanarion
9 hours ago
For disposable applications like that, aren't there single-use chemistries that are better already? I'm thinking by analogy to things like:
- WW2 proximity fuzes that had batteries where the electrolyte was in a vial that got smashed by the G-forces of being shot out of a cannon providing power to the radio inside for the 10 seconds it needs to get to the incoming aircraft
- Hearing aid Zinc-Air batteries, that are extremely energy dense because you only have to actually manufacture the anode, the cathode is the entire atmosphere of the Earth
- Missile batteries, which are often Lithium-silicon/Iron Disulfide batteries that borrow some thermal energy from the rocket motor to get a molten salt electrolyte
> - Hearing aid Zinc-Air batteries, that are extremely energy dense because you only have to actually manufacture the anode, the cathode is the entire atmosphere of the Earth
Air batteries like lithium-air and aluminum-air are being explored but at the discharge rates of a drone with all its motors, supplying enough oxidizer for the reaction becomes a big problem and they make not make sense with drones if they’re forced to scale up to get enough air flow over the cathode.
Not all drones are one way
Even for drones that are reusable: if there’s a substantial performance advantage to using a primary cell then you might just want to do that if you’re relatively price insensitive and have good logistics (say, the US Army). Or if you need to be self-sustaining in non-permissive environments (say, the US Army).