Having problems with life of your Phone battery?? Well here is good news for you!! MIT Spinoff Company called SolidEnergy claims to have created a new lithium-ion battery that can store far more lithium ions and still last hundreds of charging cycles. Kevin Bullis of SolidEnergy claimed that this new kind of lithium-ion battery will increase the battery life of the smartphones and smart watches twice the specifications provided now a days.
The size of the battery is reduced by a method that’s been tried many times before. SolidEnergy is replacing the usual graphite electrodes with a thin sheet of lithium-metal foil. However, this method which has been proven failure earlier could be dangerous with side effects of stopped working prematurely or in some instances a caused explosion. This problem is countered by using an ultra-thin metal anode and an electrolyte that both have solid and liquid parts.
“SolidEnergy’s solution is to use both a solid electrolyte and a liquid one. The solid electrolyte is applied to the lithium-metal foil—the ions don’t have far to travel through this thin material, so it doesn’t matter that they’re moving relatively slowly… Once ions move through the solid electrolyte, they reach the liquid electrolyte, which provides a path into the opposite electrode. Unlike conventional liquid electrolytes, this one isn’t flammable. And it has additives that prevent the lithium metal from reacting with it and that prevent dendrites from forming.”
– SolidEnergy
Making a handful of high-performing prototypes is one thing, but producing large volumes of these parts can be extremely difficult and this breakthrough should be taken with a bit of caution claimed SolidEnergy. The Company plans to roll out battery technology to mobile devices by 2016, followed by electric car batteries in 2017.
So, is this the next big thing when it comes to battery technology? Let’s hope so!!
