Microsoft's New Battery is a Test of AI-Infused Scientific Discovery

Harry McCracken, writing for FastCompany: Recently, Microsoft built a clock. Well, "built" may be overstating things. Members of the company's quantum computing team found a small digital clock in a wood case on Amazon -- the kind you might mistake for a nicer-than-usual trade show tchotchke. They hacked it to run off two experimental batteries they'd created in collaboration with staffers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). Then they dressed up its enclosure by adding the logo of Azure Quantum Elements, the Microsoft platform for AI-enhanced scientific discovery that had been instrumental in developing the new battery technology.

The point of this little DIY project was to prove the batteries worked in a visceral way: "You want to have a wow moment," explains Brian Bilodeau, the head of partnerships, strategy, and operations for Azure Quantum. And the person the quantum team hoped to wow was Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. Not that getting Nadella's attention was such a daunting prospect. Throwing vast amounts of Azure high-performance computing (HPC) resources at a big, hairy technical challenge such as materials research is the sort of challenge he's predisposed to take a personal interest in. Still, the tangible evidence of success made for a memorable moment: "I was very, very excited to see it come through," Nadella remembers.

The coin-sized CR2032 batteries powering the clock looked like the ones you might find in a pocket calculator or garage door opener. But on the inside, they used a solid-state electrolyte that replaces 70% of the lithium in garden-variety batteries with sodium. That holds the potential to address multiple issues with lithium batteries as we know them: their limited life on a charge, shrinking capacity over time, subpar performance in extreme temperatures, and risk of catching fire or even exploding. In addition, reducing lithium use in favor of cheap, plentiful sodium could be a boon to the fraught battery supply chain. With further development, the new material could benefit the myriad aspects of modern life that depend on batteries, from smartphones to EVs to the power grid. But Microsoft, being Microsoft, regards all this promise first and foremost as proof of Azure Quantum Elements' usefulness to the customers it's designed to serve. Unveiled last June, the cloud service is currently a "private preview" being tested by organizations such as Britain's Johnson Matthey, which is using it to help design catalytic converters and hydrogen fuel cells.

so, in just a few words

[Mr. Dollar Ton]

highly paid microsoft employees put batteries in a clock off ebay and the batteries are similar to those some chinese ( https://hardware.slashdot.org/... [slashdot.org] ) put in an electric car?

so what?

Re: so, in just a few words

[cjplay]

Right. Also about 20 firms out of Stanford figured this out like 5 years ago. Amprius Technologies has installed eVTOLs and early-preview EV batteries that solve the sodium growth problem. Another benefit, the energy density is 3x the lithium batteries.

Re: so, in just a few words

[GooberPyle]

Amprius is using lithium and silicon; not sodium. Great stuff, but it is expensive and restricted to airplanes. Sodium variants have a lower energy density so they weigh more or have limited range. Solid State batteries solve the weight problem, but are not ready yet and will likely cost more to make. A combo EV would be practical if it had a sodium battery and a removable LFP or SSB range extender for road trips. This would lower the purchase price, but battery swap infrastructure would need to be built out.

Re:

[fgouget]

You don't need battery swap infrastructure. You can just pull a range extender like the EP Tender [eptender.com]. Bonus points: car manufacturers don't need to completely redesign their cars to accommodate a standardized swappable battery; and when unused the range extenders can be used as a grid battery.

MS vs. Potato Technology

[Roger W Moore]

You can run a simple clock of a couple of potatoes but I doubt we are going to see large numbers of potato-powered laptops, phones and EVs anytime soon. If this is the best demo MS can manage then it suggests that their technology is about as useful.

How long does the battery last again?

[UnknowingFool]

Reading the article, it seems like a fluff piece as it provides no real details but exists to recount how wonderful Microsoft is. So MS made small experimental batteries using sodium instead of lithium. Okay, that is not new. It mentions that the promise of the technology is that such batteries should last longer without mentioning once what "longer" means. The CR2032 was made for small and lower power items like a calculator so it is not expected to have a lot of power. I replaced a similar battery in my car key fob that lasted 8 or 9 years. I do not expect to own that car in 8 or 9 further years.

Re:

[EvilSS]

Indeed, the researchers involved (materials scientists Vijay Murugesan, Shannon Lee, Dan Thien Nguyen and Ajay Karakoti)* at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory should be fired for this shit waste of tax payer dollars. Fired and jailed! They are obviously frauds for being involved in this garbage. Ditto for whatever manager at PNNL approved this "collaboration".


*source: https://www.pnnl.gov/news-medi... [pnnl.gov]

Corporate Pseudalism?

[Miles_O'Toole]

This has got to be fake journalism straight out of Microsoft's PR department. This is exactly the kind of bullshit Slashdot is supposed to ridicule and piss on, not publish as though it were real.

Re:Corporate Pseudalism?

[Mr. Dollar Ton]

Let's be fair, it is quite likely a nice show case of the capabilities AI-infused "creative PR writing". Certainly sounds like degenerative AI to me.

Re:

[Mirnotoriety]

> This has got to be fake journalism straight out of Microsoft's PR department. This is exactly the kind of bullshit Slashdot is supposed to ridicule and piss on, not publish as though it were real.

My thoughts precisely. Should have been titled Microsoft puff piece. Whatever happened to that unhackable OS the Microsoft science division was designing. Never mind, it got good publicity at the time.

Raises hand: About that fire/exploding thing ..

[fahrbot-bot]

But on the inside, they used a solid-state electrolyte that replaces 70% of the lithium in garden-variety batteries with sodium. That holds the potential to address multiple issues with lithium batteries ... and risk of catching fire or even exploding.

What form is the sodium in 'cause doesn't it react more violently than lithium in, say, water?

Re: Raises hand: About that fire/exploding thing .

[cjplay]

Sodium is much safer than Lithium. Only major reason this isn't everywhere is that Sodium grows when you chatge it.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

What form is the sodium in 'cause doesn't it react more violently than lithium in, say, water?

What do you mean by "violent"?
Sodium releases its energy orders of magnitude faster than lithium.
For the same amount of stored energy, a sodium fire would expend and extinguish itself quickly, while lithium will continue burning.

*IF* the amount of lithium was small enough that the time it would react remains short enough to be manageable, only then would you consider the energy being released at a lower amount for a longer time to be an advantage.

So perhaps a phone sized battery would be preferable to have

Re:

[PPH]

So a higher temperature burn for a far far shorter time

We sometimes call that an explosion (deflagration [wikipedia.org] to be precise).

Re:

[ceoyoyo]

Lithium ion batteries don't contain elemental lithium. It's a metal oxide, e.g. LiCoO2. Likewise, the sodium in a sodium ion battery is some kind of sodium salt. These batteries are some variation of NaLiYCl6 where there are x sodiums, x-3 lithiums and some other stuff (Y).

Re:

[fahrbot-bot]

Lithium ion batteries don't contain elemental lithium. It's a metal oxide, e.g. LiCoO2. Likewise, the sodium in a sodium ion battery is some kind of sodium salt. These batteries are some variation of NaLiYCl6 where there are x sodiums, x-3 lithiums and some other stuff (Y).

Thanks, that was the info I didn't know and was looking for!

Re:

[ceoyoyo]

Here's the paper if you want:

https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.040... [arxiv.org]

The abstract provided my quota of self-congratulatory blah blah for the day so I didn't read the rest of it, but if you can get past that there might be some interesting stuff. Or references to the actual material science.

BIOS Battery?

[zenlessyank]

WOW. I'm impressed. Mine all still work though.

Harry McCracken?

[know-nothing cunt]

He must be related to Phil McCracken.

We found ...

[PPH]

Recently, Microsoft built a clock. Well, "built" may be overstating things.

... Ahmed [wikipedia.org].

Lost art of composition.

[4wdloop]

What is this about?
A DIY project?
AI research?
Azure?
A CEO attention trick?
Or?

What did the AI have to do with this?

[Retired Chemist]

What exactly did the AI do that was so wonderful? Computer based optimization programs based on experimental design systems have been around for a long time. You do not need AI to do this. What you need is a trained statistician who can tell you when your statistical program is producing nonsense.

Re:

[Retired Chemist]

That only works if you have a working model of how the battery works as a function of the design. If you had that, you would not need AI, a simple optimization program would do the job.

Clarendon Dry Pile

[Going_Digital]

Bet it won’t last as long as the Clarendon Dry Pile.

Contentless drivel

[noodler]

Least informative article of the day.