Development Boosts Lithium-Ion Battery Power by 8-Fold

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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It’s good to see research done on everyday technology and in this case, it’s the rechargeable lithium-ion battery. Researchers at Berkeley Lab have been able to increase the battery’s charging power by a factor of eight. Finally something that will actually hit the marketplace and we can use.

The new anodes are made from low-cost materials, compatible with standard lithium-battery manufacturing technologies.
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If it really makes the same materials 8 times more powerful it seems that battery sizes would be cut way down.
 
A gaming laptop with 8 hours worth of gaming on battery.
Smartphone battery life could become a forgotten issue overnight.
Smartphone and other portable device designers would have more flexibility due to reduced battery size.
Pure electrics could actually become more feasible due to increased range and/or a reduction in the battery size/weight.

But, have we not all heard these lines b4? I will believe it, when they have electric cars with 800 mile ranges, or I only have to recharge my GalaxyS once or twice a week instead of once or twice daily. In other words, I hear you talking, put the product in my hands if you want me to believe in it.I would gladly pay a hefty premium for the previously mentioned smart phone battery.
 
It sounds like this may mean up to an 8x increase in the number of charging cycles a battery can take. I'm not sure if it's talking about energy density at all, which is what is important.
 
Obi_Kwiet said:
It sounds like this may mean up to an 8x increase in the number of charging cycles a battery can take. I'm not sure if it's talking about energy density at all, which is what is important.
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Didn't read the article alert :p
 
zoulias said:
Didn't read the article alert :p
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I could see how parts of the article could be taken that way, though I took it to mean they had figured a way to keep the expansion of the silicon from breaking the connections over multiple charge cycles.
 
Now this can actually make electric cars usable. As in fully electric, no hybrid with a combustion engine. With these type of batteries something like 400-500 miles on one charge should be possible.
 
Obi_Kwiet said:
It sounds like this may mean up to an 8x increase in the number of charging cycles a battery can take. I'm not sure if it's talking about energy density at all, which is what is important.
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That's what I got from the article as well. Which means that electric car batteries may last longer than the max of 10 year lifetime "they" say current models have.

But I fail to see how this fixes the recharge time, or range issues of the electric car. Maybe I'm missing something.
 
Common Li-ion batteries are made with graphite anodes, but silicon can hold up to 10 times more Lithium ions. So it can pack more much energy into the same area. The problem with silicon was that charging the battery broke the anode contacts because of how much it swells. So the article is saying they've found a way to use silicon and make batteries with much higher capacity and still be able to repeatedly charge them.

In other words, you will now be able to get a 35,200mah battery in the same size package as current 4,400mah batteries, and still be able to charge them a couple hundred times.
 
ryan_975 said:
Common Li-ion batteries are made with graphite anodes, but silicon can hold up to 10 times more Lithium ions. So it can pack more much energy into the same area. The problem with silicon was that charging the battery broke the anode contacts because of how much it swells. So the article is saying they've found a way to use silicon and make batteries with much higher capacity and still be able to repeatedly charge them.

In other words, you will now be able to get a 35,200mah battery in the same size package as current 4,400mah batteries, and still be able to charge them a couple hundred times.
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Bingo, and I for one can't wait to see that.....in 5 years time, when that battery will still get you a day's worth of phone use :p
 
ninjaturtle said:
Now if only N.E.R.V had this technology, Asuka would have lasted longer. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWKvUzZJgiY

I'm going to take a guess that this will take a much longer time to reach a full charge if the cells are near depletion.
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That's going to depend on how much charging current the new batteries can handle. If the improvement matches the increase in battery capacity, then there could be no change in total charging time. If it stay the same as current batteries, then yeah, 8x the capacity is going to take 8x longer to charge.
 
i want to see a 24 hour laptop battery without having it look like an ugly tumor, as extended batteries look these days.
 
dain said:
If it really makes the same materials 8 times more powerful it seems that battery sizes would be cut way down.
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for phones maybe, but i would hope that for batteries they wouldn't do that. Over the years laptops battery life has dropped down more and more. they need to do something that helps fix that.
 
ryan_975 said:
In other words, you will now be able to get a 35,200mah battery in the same size package as current 4,400mah batteries, and still be able to charge them a couple hundred times.
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By the time it comes out we'll probably see the same run time on quad core, 6G, DirectX 11, 7" 1080p cell phones.
 
But the people writing these articles need to stop confusing energy density and power density and quite equating an anode or cathode improvement of so many times to the whole battery. Not that this is going to be a small improvement if it makes it into production. It'll be more like 3x-4x the energy density when applied to the whole battery(anode, cathode, separator and packaging.) The thing that really matters is cost and longevity though. At least as it applies to electric cars. You could make a 300 mile range electric car with the battery tech that's available now, but the pack would only last about 100,000 miles and cost $100,000 or more.
 
Of course this means that they'll explode in your pocket 8 times faster and 8 times more powerfully than before. :p
 
westrock2000 said:
By the time it comes out we'll probably see the same run time on quad core, 6G, DirectX 11, 7" 1080p cell phones.
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Cell phones can't really get much bigger. The candy bar smart phones with 4"+ screens are already at the point were, they are starting to not fit conveniently in shirt pockets. Anything bigger than 4.5" and I start calling them tablets. :)
 
I'm interested in what this could do for electric car technology. Specs to consider are not just energy density but power density and maximum charging rate as well. If it holds eight times the charge of existing LiPo batteries, it will only take about sixty-four hours to charge from a standard wall outlet. :eek: But then, with that kind of range you wouldn't need to charge it every day.
 
Alright I usually never say anything on the whole "we just figured out some amazing new energy storage tech"


but I've ready maybe 10 to 15 articles like this over the past 5 years and not a single damn one of these developments has made it into the real world. Every 6 weeks there is a revolutionary discovery about solar or batteries, and that's as far as it gets. Nothing ever makes it into the hands of the people. So *MEH* on this whole house of lies :-p
 
If this is for real, then hybrid and plug-in electric cars are about to get a huge boost. And R/C airplanes! But wake me up when this makes it to market.
 
I bet it causes cancer and they have to use the tears of baby seals in the manufacturing process or some other BS that will keep it out of the consumer's hands indefinitely.
 
GORANKAR said:
But, have we not all heard these lines b4?
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Berkley has been concentrating on silicon as a Li-Ion interface for quite some time. Silicon batteries actually are more power dense than standard graphite substrates. The problem is they were one time use, making them worthless with the exception of 1 time use. The crystal structures would shatter due to extreme expansion/contraction. (That makes for a darn expensive battery for 1 time use)

Back in 2004, Berkely found that by using silicon in tubes they didn't experience the charging failure that often caused them to crack and become useless. This lead to a potential 10 fold increase in energy density. Producing these tubes in large scale however was "difficult"

Looks like this previous research might have fostered this research breakthrough.

Now all we have to do is

1) Reduce charge times/efficiency
2) Build enough power plants to support it.

Overnight our oil use will almost be cut in half.
 
Although to be fair I read an article in 1990 that said by the end of the decade we would have portable music players that had no moving parts and an entire album would fit on a memory chip. It sounded rediculous back then, but by 1999 the products were in fact available for purchase. So ya I think batteries still have a way to go. We didn't have a reason to make them 10x more powerfull. Now we do with high power cellphone and cars.
 
westrock2000 said:
Although to be fair I read an article in 1990 that said by the end of the decade we would have portable music players that had no moving parts and an entire album would fit on a memory chip. It sounded rediculous back then, but by 1999 the products were in fact available for purchase. So ya I think batteries still have a way to go. We didn't have a reason to make them 10x more powerfull. Now we do with high power cellphone and cars.
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true story. I agree with this guys concept theory. when we need something we adapt
 
when could we not have used laptop batteries that lasted 4-8 times as long????
 
HOCP4ME said:
I'm interested in what this could do for electric car technology. Specs to consider are not just energy density but power density and maximum charging rate as well. If it holds eight times the charge of existing LiPo batteries, it will only take about sixty-four hours to charge from a standard wall outlet. :eek: But then, with that kind of range you wouldn't need to charge it every day.
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Might have to move to 220v then. you would still want to charge it every day otherwise if you let it die it would take you a few days if your values are correct to get it fully charged again.

TwistedAegis said:
I think increased power draw has probably made battery capacity increases invisible to the consumer.
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this is true.
 
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