Polymer Gel Shows Promise For Smaller, Cheaper Batteries

TENxOXR writes "The BBC News website is reporting that a team of researchers at the University of Leeds have developed a polymer jelly that could replace the volatile and hazardous liquid electrolyte currently used in most lithium batteries. They hope that their development leads to smaller, cheaper and safer gadgets."

Comments

Patented shortly thereafter

[Dan B.]

Like all battery tech, it will be patented and will not lead to much change... Although it's a nice thought.

Battery tech is far too distributed amongst far too many companies for anyone to develop "smaller, cheaper and safer" batteries that are any better than what we have.

Re:Patented shortly thereafter

[Intrepid imaginaut]

Battery tech has been steadily improving over the last ten or twenty years though, most people don't see it because the changes are incremental and instead of putting the new higher capacity batteries into phones, they just half the size of the existing batteries.

Re:Patented shortly thereafter

[Ofloo]

I assume lithium battery was licensed as well, yet we use it, if there is need for it it will be used. If Iphone can be thinner because of it i doubt that apple will let a patent get in the way of their new design, .. the world is craving for better batteries if they are worth the change, .. you will see the change.

Re:Patented shortly thereafter

[Guspaz]

When I was a kid, NiCad was the best rechargeable batteries you'd typically find. They suffered from the memory effect, and maxed out at about 150 Wh/L (well, modern ones do anyhow, according to wikipedia). Nowadays, Panasonic makes a 18650 lithium ion cell that does 620, and they expect to push that to 800 by 2013. A rather hefty improvement!

Re:Patented shortly thereafter

[jellomizer]

I am not following you.
1. The patent doesn't stop it from being implemented. It just means for a company that wants to use the technology will need to make an agreement with the patent owner.

2. Battery technology has been improving. But not by Moors law speed. So compared to computer development batter development seem lagging. But it is progressing. And I would expect it to catch up at the point we reach the limit of Moors law.

3. My first cellphone back in the late 90s had a battery was about the size and weight of an iPhone folded in half. It lasted about as long as the iPhone, but it had a 64x64 resolution monochrome non-backlighted LCD screen. No texting just a phone it's biggest app was storing telephone numbers. No where near the power hog of the iPhone. With a small battery that performs well enough and long enough to have it integrated right in the device.

Re:Patented shortly thereafter

[kelemvor4]

I assume lithium battery was licensed as well, yet we use it, if there is need for it it will be used. If Iphone can be thinner because of it i doubt that apple will let a patent get in the way of their new design, .. the world is craving for better batteries if they are worth the change, .. you will see the change.

Apple will probably make one with rounded corners and re-patent it.

Re:Patented shortly thereafter

[khallow]

There's also the problem that these businesses in question were unable to build cheap, near flawless LCD screens over that time period. I'd put that issue ahead of the patent thing.

Not new, my car already have them

[spectro]

My Hyundai Sonata Hybrid uses Lithium Polymer batteries that according to this article already implement this technology.

Lithium polymer technology uses a completely different approach. Rather than using a liquid electrolyte, which requires a robust metal casing, lithium polymer batteries use a polymer gel as the electrolyte

Re:Not new, my car already have them

[MemoryDragon]

Also pretty much all apple devices use li polymer batteries.

Re:Not new, my car already have them

[Anonymous Coward]

You should try reading the article, your car and apple laptops use a solid polymer technology where as this is a polymer jelly

Battery vrs capacitor

[Commontwist]

I remember hearing about a new capacitor technology that used nanoparticles to allow far more power storage and almost instant recharge rates. Better/worse?

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7990679.html

Try Google.

[HaeMaker]

Different polymer. The Li-ion Polymers used today are the "solid" batteries the article refers to (as opposed to Liquid Li-ion). A quick Google search would have answered that for you.

This does not *replace* the liquid electrolyte

[Jack Malmostoso]

Unfortunately, this invention does not replace the liquid electrolyte. The "jelly" is a polymer soaked in the liquid electrolyte, which definitely is immobilized (thus protecting against leaks) but it's probably not fireproof (I could not find a reference to a research article).
Despite this, it is a step in the right direction: dry polymer electrolytes are a good solution, but nowadays they have a low conductivity (about 100 times lower than the liquid). The solution to this is to run the batteries at higher temperatures (about 80C), but this promotes the fading of the capacity.
The real solution to the flammability of batteries will come with ceramic solid electrolytes, which are now in their early stages but should become practical in a few years.

Re:I have never had a LI-xx battery blow up

[gomiam]

Usually they won't burst into flames more than once each time, as you will probably need a new one after ;)

Re:Oh, a battery article again

[Joce640k]

That's down to the marketing department. Batteries have got a lot better but the marketers decided you want smaller gadgets and/or bigger screens, not longer battery life.

Re:Oh, a battery article again

[TheRaven64]

I'm sceptical though, since batteries just aren't getting any better in real life

Lots of people keep saying this. I wonder if any of you have ever used a battery.

FTFA :(Re:Not new, my car already have them)

[introcept]

My Hyundai Sonata Hybrid uses Lithium Polymer batteries that according to this article already implement this technology.

It's a completely different technology.
FTA:

The Leeds-based researchers are promising that their jelly batteries are as safe as polymer batteries, perform like liquid-filled batteries, but are 10 to 20% the price of either.

A five to tenfold reduction in the price of batteries sounds pretty significant.

Re:Of all the sci-phi movies to come true...

[Mikkeles]

Pizza's fine; it's his brother Jabba about whom I worry!

Re:I dont want smaller....

[afidel]

That's cool, mine is a phone, a pager, a datebook, an email appliance, a mobile terminal, a podcast reader, and an entertainment device (including functioning as a really advanced remote for my HTPC). I use the phone portion maybe 100-200 minutes a month, the rest of the device I use that much a day.