Laptops For Less Blog

Laptop Batteries That Last 10 Times Longer Are Coming!

Over the past 15 years, there has been little improvement to lithium ion battery life. Since their introduction in 1991, there have been many improvements made to the overall stability of the battery, but only small steps forward in battery life. Recently, however, an assistant professor at Stanford University announced that they have come up with a new type of lithium battery that contains 10 times the storage capacity of the current ones.

Yi Cui is an assistant professor of materials science and engineering at Standford. In December 2007 he announced his new battery and applied for a patent on the technology.

A lithium ion battery’s electrical storage capacity is typically determined by how much lithium can fit onto the anode before the battery discharges, ceasing electrical current. Normally a battery is made with a carbon anode, which can
only hold so much until the battery needs to be charged again. The reason improvements to lithium ion battery life have been so scarce has been due to the fact that you can’t really do anything to the carbon anode. The only small
improvements have been due to the upgrading of microprocessors within the battery that use less overall energy.

In the past, scientists have tried using a silicon anode instead of carbon. The advantage of this was that they would have a much higher lithium holding capacity, and thus a longer battery life. However, the silicon would shrink and then swell every time the battery discharges and charges. Due to this, the silicone anode would quickly disintegrate, resulting in an overall battery life that deteriorates quickly. Yi Cui has managed to overcome this problem.

Cui used nanotechnology with silicon in lithium ion batteries in order to make up for the silicon disintegration. He stored lithium as many small silicon nano-wires. Each of these nano-wires is about as wide as 1/1000th of the average sheet of paper. When these wires absorb lithium they grow to four times their size without the hazard of deteriorating. While the older silicon shapes would eventually disintegrate and become useless, Cui’s new idea of using nanotechnology allows to retain its battery capacity without dying out.

This is a very exciting discovery when you consider the fact that, in the past 15 years, there have been almost no improvements in the battery life of lithium ion batteries. When this becomes commercial it can mean a lot just in terms of
improvements to your personal life. As I mentioned earlier, Cui has applied for a patent, so it’s only a matter of time before it goes on the market.

Need a new lithium ion battery for your notebook? LaptopsForLess.com has a huge selection of notebook batteries in stock, at very reasonable prices [often a fraction of the cost of manufacturers’ own brand replacements]. We stock replacement notebook batteries from the following manufacturers; Acer, Apple, Compaq, Dell, Fujitsu, HP, Lenovo, Sony, Toshiba and many more. We also stock a huge selection of AC Adapters and a wide range of other notebook peripherals from all the major manufacturers too!