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'No Fire Risk' With New Lithium Batteries (bbc.com)
Lithium-ion batteries that are resistant to exploding or catching fire have been developed by scientists. From a report: The devices produced sufficient energy for use in household electronics, but did not ignite -- even when punctured repeatedly with a nail. The batteries use a water-salt solution as their electrolyte, removing the risks carried by some non-aqueous commercial models. The research is published in the journal Joule. "In the past, if you wanted high energy, you would choose a non-aqueous lithium-ion battery, but you would have to compromise on safety. If you preferred safety, you could use an aqueous battery such as nickel/metal hydride, but you would have to settle for lower energy," said co-author Kang Xu, from the US Army Research Laboratory (ARL). "Now, we are showing that you can simultaneously have access to both high energy and high safety."
About three weeks back we had a report on a breakthrough that could result in rechargeable zinc-air batteries, built of cheap materials. Rechargeable zinc-air would trounce lithium-ion on energy density (for applications exposed to air, at least) because you don't have to carry the oxidizer around. Main detail to be worked out is cycle lifetime.
Now we have a breakthrough that could result in non fire-prone lithium-ion batteries - again if the (unstated) details work out. This could be a drop-in replacement, perhaps with a tweak of the charge control chip's parameters.
I wonder when, if, and which might make it to market.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
About three weeks back we had a report on a breakthrough that could result in rechargeable zinc-air batteries, built of cheap materials.
Forgot the link.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
I wonder when, if, and which might make it to market.
It takes years to go from "we did it once or twice in a lab" to "commercial product is ready to ship". At best.
Engineering work takes time, especially when the product is targeting an established market.
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According to the latest ruleset, this post should be modded as Vorpal Flamebait +5.
I'm not holding my breath.
I hope not. After a few minutes, it'll get unpleasant.
Was working on some designs for a rechargeable sprinkler system to extinguish fires caused by these battery packs.
WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
With all the battery advances, it would be nice to see at least 3-4 types of batteries, with the chemistry optimal for each application:
1: Lead-acid battery replacements. Goal is for inexpensive technology to allow these to go below 50% SoC without permanent damage. Some research is done with graphite supercaps, to allow deeper discharge without damage, be as stated by another, I'll believe it once it hits Amazon.
2: Very high energy density. Cell phones are not getting any more thrifty with battery life, especially with the pressure to add GPU and other items, as well as the bloating of apps and other gewgaws to provide analytics to all the tons of companies sucking that data off the device.
3: A stable chemistry, so if the cell is punctured or breached, it doesn't cause an explosiion.
4: Long lived cells made for giving low amounts of power for years or decades.
5: Cells made to take extreme environments, be it radiation, cold in space, high pressures of deep sea exploration, etc.
What would be useful is lead-acid battery replacements, with chemistry that has a lot larger charge/discharge rate.
Or are the safeguards working against the product?
According to the summary they work.
Looking at the paper on this, they are about half the energy density of modern Lithium batteries. We'll have to see if they can bring those numbers up.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Maybe you should stop reading articles posted to science.slashdot.org, because none of those will be about things being built in a factory.
Nothing is perfect. There are no WaterPROOF phones, but WaterRESISTANT phones, it will be Fire RESISTANT not Fire PROOF. Title says "No Fire Risk" at all? Small or little fire risk.