One of the modern “problems” that mobile devices suffer from is this – the lack of battery power, or rather, a capacity that is not enough to get the job done throughout a busy day. Sure, scientists have worked hard to make sure that the popular li-ion battery has made some gains in its performance, capacity and charge times, but here we are with the possibility of a new breakthrough with the implementation of Li/S batteries that are said to feature double the capacity of li-ion batteries.
Apart from that, the new Li/S batteries are also touted to do away with them nasty conflict minerals from the construction process. This is made possible thanks to a team over at Berkeley Lab, where the battery researchers that were led by Elton Cairns managed to work on an improved lithium/sulfur (Li/S) cell which will deliver a long cycle life and a high discharge rate simultaneously – a first of its kind, all without breaking the bank and retaining the lightweight characteristic of Li/S batteries. So far, initial tests point to the Berkeley Lab Li/S cell boast of an estimated specific energy of nearly 500 Wh/kg, which is over twice the amount that existing Li-ion cells have.
The big question is this, when will the consumer electronics industry be able to adopt such battery technology on a mass scale? [Research Paper (PDF Link)]
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