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Battery Tech Could Treble Your Phone's Charge(Sky News (UK) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) A breakthrough in battery technology described as the discovery of the "holy grail" could mean smartphones last three-times longer on a single charge. While computing technology continues to evolve at speed, battery technology has been stuck in a relative rut for several years. Now researchers at Stanford University say they have taken a big step forward towards designing a "pure lithium anode". All batteries have three basic components; an electrolyte, an anode to discharge the electrolyte's electrons, and a cathode to receive them. Existing lithium batteries - used widely in smartphones and electric cars - have lithium in the electrolyte, but not the anode. It has been known for a long time that an anode of pure lithium can boost battery efficiency – but until now attempts to create one have failed. "It is very lightweight and it has the highest energy density. You get more power per volume and weight, leading to lighter, smaller batteries with more power." One of the researchers, Guangyuan Zheng said: "Lithium has major challenges that have made its use in anodes difficult. "Many engineers had given up the search, but we found a way to protect the lithium from the problems that have plagued it for so long." Former US secretary of energy Steven Chu also is part of the team. He said: "In practical terms, if we can improve the capacity of batteries to, say, four times today's, that would be exciting. "You might be able to have cell phone with double or triple the battery life or an electric car with a range of 300 miles that cost only $25,000 (£14,700) - competitive with an internal combustion engine getting 40 mpg." (c) Sky News 2014 |