From 1799 the technology of the battery was discovered, the battery has been developed for more than 200 years, lithium battery is the most successful revolution in battery technology in recent history, far superior in weight and energy density, but with the rapid upgrade of consumer-grade products, lithium batteries can no longer fully meet the needs of users, so the next generation of battery technology breakthrough, how long do we need to wait?
How long do we need to wait for a breakthrough in battery technology?
Even if it is recognized that the development of smart phones has reached a peak, we can still see a large number of technical and design changes every year, such as this year's most into the topic of OLED screen, large screen ratio design and so on. Of course, no matter how these things change, there are some constants that we seem to have become accustomed to, and that is the battery technology. Performance continues to enhance, resolution continues to improve, photos are getting better and better, but the battery life that is certainly not too much of a breakthrough.
We certainly have a way to improve the phone's battery life, as long as the battery is bigger on the line, but this is only the most crude way, after all, the phone is so big. Almost all the technology research can be solved by smashing money and time, battery technology is so important, it is not worth the big manufacturers to invest?
The solution sounds simple, but it's not. Investing a lot of money, hiring the best scientists, and having enough patience are not the keys to the problem. The problem is that building a higher energy density battery would involve a whole new field of science.
In this regard, Billy Wu, a professor at Imperial College Dyson School of Engineering in London, explained that Moore's Law simply means that every few years transistors become smaller, allowing the chip to hold more and thus increase processing power. This is not the case in the battery field. "In the microprocessor world, everything is just about making things smaller. But when it comes to lithium-ion batteries, if you want to increase the energy density, in other words, to increase the battery life of the phone, then you have to fundamentally change the materials in the battery."
This is certainly not "then change the material" so simple, because the balance of the internal material composition even a little bit wrong can lead to serious problems. Now so many accidents, are reminding us how serious it will be if something goes wrong. Professor Wu said that the existing combination of nickel, cobalt and manganese may change in the next few years. Because nickel is more active, its proportion will be improved, thus adding new electricity.
Of course, just this change still needs several years of testing to ensure that everything is stable and safe. It is said that if successful, the range can have a 10% to 20% increase. However, people have been waiting for so many years, waiting for the improvement and time does not seem to match. The real breakthrough in battery technology is as if people are chasing an impossible dream.
The difficulties are many
In the words of scientists, battery technology can be described as an "art of chaos". It has been so slow to develop, in large part because almost every little advance or change has to go through a lot of experimentation and testing to ensure safety and stability. Even when a material is discovered that is helpful regarding boosting energy density, you can't guarantee that it will actually work.
As an example, it has recently been discovered that silicone seems to be a better material than the graphite in batteries today. Its energy density is ten times that of graphite, meaning that if our phones can last a day now, silicone batteries can keep them going for ten days. The problem is that such a battery becomes a very dangerous explosive.
Why is this so? When the battery is charged and discharged, the graphite expands and contracts by about 10%. We can deal with 10%, but silicone can reach 300% on this. It doesn't take much thought to understand how dangerous this kind of battery should be.
Because of this, the investment in battery technology research can be said to be a black hole that can not see the bottom, so although there are many scientists, companies and research institutions in the world to persevere in the research, but can not see the prospect of making these efforts have always been a separate war, the formation of an industry-wide cooperation.
What's more, the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 series of events shocked the entire industry, which also made people become more cautious in their research and pay more attention to each step of the test. Industry insiders revealed that many manufacturers had previously started to take a chance and wanted to force the rise of battery energy density. The battery incident was a wake-up call that forced everyone to slow down the pace - and of course, attention to safety is certainly a good thing.
Will we see progress?
So here's the question: Since breakthroughs have been so slow, when exactly will we see progress coming? Interestingly, the answer is a long time from now, but it doesn't seem that long.
"It takes about 10 years and £100 million to develop a new chemical process, so it's not comparable to the microprocessor field in terms of economic scale." Professor Wu said.
Moreover, 10 years is only the first stage. The next 10 years will take another 10 years, constantly testing and improving, so that the new technology is safe and stable enough, otherwise it can not be applied to commercialization. As the simplest example, the research results related to lithium-ion batteries were first published in 1980 at Oxford University. It was not until after the 1990s that Sony first commercialized the technology.
"We already have another chemistry, but it's going to take a little while for it to arrive. People have been talking about sulfur or silica gel as a new material for batteries. Also now there is what is called a lithium-air battery that could be the ultimate solution. However it will take one or even two more than 10 years before it is perfect." Professor Wu said.
Ten or even 20 years is a horribly long time for everyone, but after hearing about the desperate conditions that preceded it, it doesn't seem so long. What's more, the manufacturers have found another way, piecemeal progress and optimization will certainly still be there.
Although the battery technology can not break through in a short time, but after all, other technologies can not be progress. As cell phone performance continues to enhance, the resolution even to 4K level, these are on the energy consumption optimization has put forward demanding requirements. OLED screen can effectively reduce energy consumption. Various software level optimization has also become a must.
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