I grow a mean beard. That would be awesome if I actually liked having to shave every two days — but I don’t. After going through several less powerful shavers, I finally decided to invest in a Phillips SensoTouch3d, model rq1295 (known as Norelco in the U.S.). I love almost everything about it.
Shaving now takes less than five minutes, it’s as clean as the commercials claim, and charging is lightning fast. However, I have one major complaint: the device’s lithium-ion battery. I accidentally slightly overcharged my shaver few times and was left with the battery that has less power than when I first bought it. And it took just a few months of use to have it permanently lose 10% of its initial capacity. How frustrating.
It’s not just Philips. My mobile graphic workstation/gaming rig Asus G750JH is also bogged down by poor battery life. Although not nearly as sensitive to various charging mishaps as Philips’ li-ion, the battery in my Asus can handle around 1-1½ hours of working under full load. Translate this into a proper gaming session or an average working scenario and it is simply not enough. If I want to get any serious work done, I need to carry my 28-punce power supply along with my 150-ounce “laptop” anywhere I go. At least I’m building muscle.
And don’t get me started on my Apple AAPL, -0.39% iPhone 5 and its weird charging rituals. One minute the battery says 99%, two minutes later, it’s 33%. Granted, the phone is three years old and has seen some heavy use, but still.
The list goes on. I’m sure you have quite a few “memories” of your smartphone running out of juice when you needed it most, or being surprised about the price of the replacement battery for your beloved device (share your stories in the comment section; I’d love to read them).
Read: How to keep your smartphone from exploding
Lithium-ion batteries are in billions of high-tech devices, gadgets and, increasingly, cars. So if they are that bad, why isn’t there already new technology to make them obsolete?
There may actually be multiple possibilities. One is metal-air batteries.
In January 2015, Japanese company Fuji Pigment Co. Ltd. announced it was developing a new type of battery called an aluminum-air battery. It simply needs to be filled with saltwater or fresh water to charge, and its theoretical specific energy level is 8,100 Wh/kg (watt hour / kilogram). Compare it with commercial lithium ion batteries, which have specific energy levels within 100-200 Wh/kg. This means an aluminum-air battery has a theoretical capacity more than 40 times bigger than its lithium-ion counterpart.
Fuji PigmentFurthermore, aluminum is abundant, commercially cheap and the most recycled metal in the world. As a result, aluminum-air batteries will be cheap. In fact, if you’re feeling crafty, you could make one yourself after watching this video:
So, aluminum-air batteries seem awesome. Why aren’t they powering our devices? Well, they kind of already are:
In March 2013, Phinergy, an Israeli company, released a video demonstration of an electric car powered by aluminum-air cells that crossed 330 km (205 miles) using a special cathode and potassium hydroxide.
However, it appears there are a couple of obstacles to large-scale commercialization of these batteries. Aluminum corrodes rapidly during the regular battery use. This means the aluminum-air battery isn’t rechargeable. And electrochemical byproducts accumulate on the electrodes, further diminishing the battery’s capacity. All of this could change, though.
The experts at Fuji Pigment are experimenting with replacing the current electrolyte (water) with an ionic liquid, as well as placing a TiO2 (titanium dioxide) as an internal layer to separate the electrodes and battle the accumulation of byproducts. They claim these two upgrades, if successful, will make aluminum-air batteries rechargeable.
As you can see, metal-air batteries (batteries that use an anode made from pure metal and an external cathode of ambient air, typically with an aqueous electrolyte) show a lot of potential. Another powerful variant is a lithium-air battery. Its theoretical specific energy is 11,140Wh/kg, which is oh-so-close as gasoline (12,200Wh/kg). Although these numbers are high, they’re still theoretical.
Practically speaking, we still haven’t sufficiently tapped the potential of the lithium-air batteries. The most dense li-air batteries produced so far are at around 1,700Wh/kg, which could roughly power a what’s known as a Full Electric Vehicle (a vehicle with an onboard rechargeable electricity storage system, like Tesla) for 311 miles on a single charge. Lithium-ion batteries could power the same car for only 93 miles.
What about commercial use? These batteries have series of issues on the chemical level that hinder them from being commercially viable. If these issues get resolved, the car industry is likely to use them for FEVs. Some scientists believe these batteries may one day be able to provide as much energy to the wheels of a car as gasoline can.
There are other metal-air battery variants being explored. What do you think? Will metal-air batteries dethrone li-ion, or will a $40 billion-plus li-ion industry come up with ways to further increase the efficiency and power of its product? Let me know in the comment section.
Also read: These high-tech tattoos enable you to control electronic devices
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