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

[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!

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