Japanese Company Develops Ultra-High Capacity LI-ON Battery

[Steven Bogos]

Japanese Company Develops Ultra-High Capacity LI-ON Battery

The new lithium-ion battery from Shin-Etsu Chemical Co. boasts over ten times the capacity of the current standard.

Smartphones are great! You can essentially have the entire wealth of human knowledge in the palm of you hands, no matter where in the world you are (as long as you have reception). Android and iOS have also proven to be quite suitable platforms for gaming on the go. The only problem is, even with the best battery on the market, you'd be lucky to go a day without having to recharge. Japan's Shin-Etsu Chemical Co. aims to change that, announcing a new kind of lithium-ion battery that boasts over ten times the capacity of the current industry standard.

Shin-Etsu was able to achieve such results by changing the structure inside the battery to a wafer semiconductor and substituting carbon-based material for silicon. You can stop holding your breath about it being included in the iPhone 6 though, because Shin-Etsu estimates that the battery will only go into mass production in three or four years.

The new battery technology will be offered to major electrical manufacturers not only in Japan but also around the world. As well as the obvious application in smartphones and mobile electronics, the technology is also expected to play an important role in the future of electric vehicles by allowing drivers to go further on single charge, making longer trips a possibility.

Japan's electronic materials industry is expected to take an even more dominating presence in the world market as a result of this move.

A welcoming move to everyone who's ever had to root/jailbreak their smartphone in order to remove bloatware and tweak system settings just so they can squeeze those precious extra minutes of battery life from the device.

Source: Rocket News 24 [http://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXNASDD3106M_R30C13A7MM8000/?dg=1]

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[Evil Smurf]

Imagine a smartphone with the battery life of a Nokia brick, now that's cool.

 

[Daemascus]

Hopefully these don't have the exploding problem of early lithium batteries. With all that extra power you get 10 times the boom. Or ten times the fire.

 

[Vaccine]

Ten times the battery life for only ten times the cost!

 

[shintakie10]

Its kinda surprisin it took people this long to make a battery that actually lasted a long time. Mobile devices have advanced technology wise by leaps and bounds in the last ten years, yet the thing powerin the whole thing has barely gotten any better. The only real stop gap was to make ridiculously bulky batteries that generally defeated the purpose of havin a small phone in the first place.

Related note, I'm actually really interested in that note about electric cars. One of the two biggest complaints about electric cars was that they didn't really go very far, even if fully charged, and you had to charge the damn thing all night pretty much every night. With a battery that lasted 10 times longer than current ones you'd be able to actually make decently long trips.

 

[CriticalMiss]

That's a pretty big jump in capacity. But is it going to cost way more to produce them than a traditional, home cooked lithium battery like mama used to make?

 

[Shinsei-J]

I wonder how long it's going to take for this technology to be on the general market?

 

[Charli]

Finally! This might finally convince me to move up from my nokia (I'm dead serious, I have refused to join the smartphone zombie hoard like a grumpy old codger).

The battery life and my unwillingness to listen to music or game on the go has kept me married to a reliable old phone that does all I need it to (be a phone).

However... with this factor eliminated and my ipod squeezing the last of it's life out to keep it's relevancy I might just pick one up soon if these longer lasting batteries join the fray.

Providing the technology is immediately funded because dayumn. I'd fund the development of that shiz into production.

 

[CJ1145]

What I'd like to know, though, is how much it costs to make compared to a regular battery. Because I have a feeling certain companies with various fruity logos will be trying to pass it off as a luxury resource.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

What I'd like to know, though, is how much it costs to make compared to a regular battery. Because I have a feeling certain companies with various fruity logos will be trying to pass it off as a luxury resource.

that fruity logo is about to find my foot rammed straight up it's ass if it dare fucking tries to, god dammit it would be an injustice to try to put into words how much i loathe that company.

OT: about fucking time, technology has made leaps and bounds in just about every other category besides batteries.

(to be truthful i wouldn't mind lugging around a battery that is as big as the phone itself if it meant not having to charge it 3/4th's the way through the day to make sure i can still use it)

 

[Something Amyss]

Imagine a smartphone with the battery life of a Nokia brick, now that's cool.

I'd imagine it'd be quite warm. >.>

My big question is how long this takes to charge. Or rather, will take to charge, since we will be waiting 3-4 years. But seriously, my Galaxy S3 took FOREVER to charge on an extended (2X capacity) battery. Will these charge more efficiently? Will I need to leave it plugged in for 18 hours? will I need to hook myself directly to the power lines?

Less an issue for cars, but for handhelds? Kind of a big deal.

Hopefully these don't have the exploding problem of early lithium batteries. With all that extra power you get 10 times the boom. Or ten times the fire.

I think you just found their new slogan.

Ten times the battery life for only ten times the cost!

I think a 500 dollar battery would be dead on arrival. If they couldn't make these at least somewhat economically feasible they wouldn't bother.

 

[crepesack]

I don't think that they'll be that much more expensive. to be honest I'm pretty amazed that lithium batteries are so cheap. Lithium is actually a fairly rare metal.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

I wonder how long it's going to take for this technology to be on the general market?

The article states around three to four years for mass production.

Yet another reason not to buy an iPhone, if this comes out in-between releases, you wouldn't be able to change the battery without taking it to a shop and being charged out the ass for it.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Not that impressive considering that we're very far into developing technology for a battery that will be 2000 more powerful and recharge 1000 faster.

http://www.extremetech.com/computing/153614-new-lithium-ion-battery-design-thats-2000-times-more-powerful-recharges-1000-times-faster

What I'd like to know, though, is how much it costs to make compared to a regular battery. Because I have a feeling certain companies with various fruity logos will be trying to pass it off as a luxury resource.

Only if the fruity company buys the patent or the exclusive license. Which is highly unlikely because there are multiple companies working on the similar technology. In the future all batteries will be like that. The more likely scenario is that battery manufacturers will in time cease to develop standard batteries and embrace the new technology in order to stay in business. The transition period may result in higher prices of new batteries which will reflect on the prices of devices that use those batteries.

 

[Shinsei-J]

I wonder how long it's going to take for this technology to be on the general market?

The article states around three to four years for mass production.

I have no clue how I missed an entire paragraph...
Now I just feel dumb.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Well ya you can push Li-Ion batteries much much farther then current cheap commercial stuff, but they also get incredibly unstable and burn out absurdly fast.

I much prefer the idea of just having a bigger backplate that is all battery, super thin phones are a great party piece but after a week or two I only really want it to work for longer.

 

[Pinkamena]

Its kinda surprisin it took people this long to make a battery that actually lasted a long time. Mobile devices have advanced technology wise by leaps and bounds in the last ten years, yet the thing powerin the whole thing has barely gotten any better. The only real stop gap was to make ridiculously bulky batteries that generally defeated the purpose of havin a small phone in the first place.

You wouldn't believe how much cash is being poured into battery and energy storage research. There is such an enormous demand for batteries with better capacity that whatever firm or company is able to come up with something better that the current standard will become very rich.

 

[Jumwa]

But I want it nooowwwww!

I want a 3DS XL that goes on forever.

 

[shirkbot]

Its kinda surprisin it took people this long to make a battery that actually lasted a long time. Mobile devices have advanced technology wise by leaps and bounds in the last ten years, yet the thing powerin the whole thing has barely gotten any better. The only real stop gap was to make ridiculously bulky batteries that generally defeated the purpose of havin a small phone in the first place.

You wouldn't believe how much cash is being poured into battery and energy storage research. There is such an enormous demand for batteries with better capacity that whatever firm or company is able to come up with something better that the current standard will become very rich.

Personally, I've always noted a distinct disinterest in the evolution of battery technology from the business/research side. It's actually something that's bugged me a lot since I view energy storage as a key part of the future of technology, which makes stories like this one quite rare. Rarer still, it made me smile a little. I just hope they take the time to iron all the bugs out, and make sure they're ironed out, before release.