Better batteries
ahead mean big changes for mobility
Tired of having
your battery drain too fast on your phone? Some amazing new developments are
taking place in the realm of batteries. Find out what's coming next.
I went on a
camping trip last month in the next town over from mine, a rural community
where 3G/4G mobile access is as a sparse as the thinly-populated countryside
itself. As is usually the case in these situations, my Samsung Galaxy struggled
gamely to get a signal, causing it to chew through battery life like a New
Year's Eve partygoer popping Advil on January 1. My robust ZeroLemon extended
battery drained within a day even after I switched it to airplane mode, and
attempting to charge it with my Energizer Instant Charger (which runs on AA
batteries) merely resulted in a flurry of annoying "connect your
charger" prompts; no actual charging took place. I wound up charging the
phone in my vehicle but even after a couple of hours I only got about 22% more
life out of the battery, which was exhausted by 10 p.m. Lights out.
Nowadays poor
battery life and the travails we engage in to try to keep them on life support
are, in a word, absurd. We have devices in our pockets that are more powerful
than anything NASA could boast of 40 years ago, and still we are held back by
battery limitations. It's like having to hand-crank a Ferrari to get it to
start - or worse, having to kill the engine then crank it up at every
stoplight.
Is the day
coming when we won't have to engage in this time-consuming dance? Well, yes, it
is.
According to
Science Daily, "Scientists [at Nangyang Technological University in
Singapore] have developed a new battery that can be recharged up to 70 per cent
in only 2 minutes. The battery will also have a longer lifespan of over 20
years." Furthermore, it can be charged up to 20 times more than current
models.
While the
context of the article relates to electric vehicle batteries, this is a new
kind of lithium ion battery which will also apply to smartphones and many other
objects requiring portable power.
How is this new
battery different?
Lithium ion
batteries were developed well over thirty years ago, and though they've
advanced since their original versions the deficiencies are still painful.
These new batteries contain titanium dioxide which is affordable, plentiful and
safe. It's currently in use within paint and solar panels, for instance. The
titanium dioxide particles are turned into a gel which makes up nanotubes much
smaller than a typical hair. The size and structure of the nanotubes and the
properties of the gel - which is tough and resistant to deterioration - work
more efficiently than current batteries to facilitate rapid battery charging.
Reports thus far
don't indicate that the new battery provides more power capacity or lasts
longer after a full charge than contemporary batteries, but the breakthrough
here is the quick recharge time and the long lifespan of the battery, allowing
it to potentially be used for decades (and I hope this spurs cell phone
manufacturers to standardize on one kind of battery which can be transplanted
across various models both current and future).
Using existing
power sources or portable rechargers a smartphone could be fully powered up in
3 minutes, according to the current projection of charging capability -
although it's not clear whether existing charger cables could possibly pass
such a high amount of wattage within that time span. Cable upgrades may go
hand-in-hand with this kind of battery. However, this is minor in the overall
scheme of things. Since the battery will last much longer there will be fewer
discards and less worry about the main battery dying on a road trip - which is
why I carry two spares. Even desperate situations like recharging smartphones
in an airport terminal while waiting to board a flight will be made easier.
This isn't the
only "new and improved battery" in the game, however - nor do they
all seem to find the light of day. A year and a half ago a similar advance in
lithium ion technology was announced (and about which the current status is
unclear) which claimed to be "2,000 times more powerful, recharges 1,000
times faster." And lithium ion may not necessarily be the only way to go;
dual carbon batteries are also reportedly under development (as of last May)
which claim to "charge 20x faster than lithium ion." However, this
battery developed at Nangyang Technological University may have an advantage
going for it: it matches current manufacturing processes meaning these don't need
to be expanded or revised, and that will help further its development.
Can you believe
this? Are you looking forward to seeing this product to be produced?
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