New Solid Sulphur Batteries Could Be The Answer To Your Smartphone Battery Woes

Empirial

Youngling
When we talk about consumer technology, most companies claim that the innovation is the slowest in battery technology. This is because batteries are based on innovation in chemistry than in pure engineering. But a solution is on the horizon as the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in the US has developed a new Lithium-Sulphur technology, that addresses flammability issues of traditional batteries and is yet a lot cheaper and lighter while having four times the density of existing batteries that are found in phones, Gizmodo India reports.

The most obvious advantage of this technology is that a Lithium-Sulphur battery maintains a capacity of around 1,200 mAh per gram while a Lithium-ion battery has a capacity of around 140-170 mAh per gram. This amounts to a 800 percent bump, but since Lithium-Sulphur only delivers half the voltage of Lithium-ion, it should deliver around 400 percent improvement in capacity on current battery weights. This is indeed quite impressive.

While Lithium-Sulphur was for long considered to be an alternative battery technology, the liquid electrolytes needed to perform often broke down. To solve this issue ORNL made a solid electrolyte that combined a Sulphur rich cathode and a Lithium anode for an energy dense battery. However, this also meant that the all-solid electrolytes eliminated flammable liquids, making the battery much safer.

This battery technology is also cheaper because Sulphur is a byproduct of petroleum processing, which basically means waste fuel is being recycled to create these batteries. These batteries are still at a demo stage and are patent pending, but the team at ORNL hopes that it will soon be used in commercial applications. We hope that we see this technology trickle down to smartphones and tablets, because the current battery life of mobile products is simply not acceptable, and this technology could be a potential breakthrough.

Source : New solid Sulphur batteries could be the answer to your smartphone battery woes | News & Video Reviews of Gadgets at BGR India
 

Vyom

The Power of x480
Staff member
Admin
A battery that can provide four times the power at same mAH sure creates saliva in the mouth, but since the technology would is patent pending means, it can't be mass produced, hence would cost at a premium.

Just hoping for the best.
 

roypurohit

Broken In
Yes interesting topic.... Nowadays smartphone battery is not enough as it partially performs a role of PC. People are awaiting for new innovation in smartphone battery. but still there are many curiosity left here... What about durability...! Price...! acceptance...! whether this invention will commercially utilized or just become show piece...!

I hope it will be commercially used in every industry.

BTW, R&D in battery always lure me but as I'm coming from Software Engineering field, it would be never possible for me to change my profession ;).
 
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