As 5G becomes more prevalent, phones must adapt to the power demands of the next generation of networks. When 5G comes along, the phone will quickly consume all of its power. According to foreign media reports, Nokia researchers recently filed a patent for a new battery technology that could better support 5G services or double the battery life/life of 5G phones. However, the report says this Nokia research could take years to materialize. Why is battery technology research progressing so slowly? How will the future of cell phone battery technology break through?
Why is electric technology stagnant?
To be precise, human battery technology is not stagnant, but slow in comparison with other technologies. Now cell phones are mainly used in lithium batteries. Battery development is from the early, the 1980s nickel-cadmium batteries, as large as a brick, is used in the "big brother" on; the early 1990s 2G network maturity, mobile phones.
The early 1990s 2G network maturity, cell phone batteries have also progressed, cell phone manufacturers began to abandon the traditional battery compartment containing cylindrical nickel-cadmium batteries, and instead use customized miniaturized nickel-cadmium battery pack. Then NiMH batteries were introduced, and its memory effect was not so obvious compared to the previous generation of batteries. This is also its advantage, because the memory effect of the battery needs to be filled every time. Otherwise, the battery activity will be reduced. By 92 years of Sony's research and development of lithium-ion batteries finally put into commercial use, but at the time, its high price and not outstanding power to take any advantage, but also only in their own products. By 94 years Dell notebooks for the first time using lithium-ion batteries, followed by many cell phone manufacturers to follow the trend of lithium-ion batteries as a major selling point. By the late 1990s, with the update of lithium-ion battery manufacturing technology, as well as the birth of new materials, lithium battery production and manufacturing costs are reduced, the volume is reduced, the capacity can be expanded. This time is the beginning of the popularity of lithium batteries.
Why has not been a great development of cell phone batteries? Lithium batteries were invented in the 70s, used in the 90s, the early 21st century was used on a large scale in computers cell phones and other devices, to now 2019, nearly 30 years since the core technology and theory of lithium batteries have not been a great breakthrough. Why is this?
Lithium batteries are chemical batteries, composed of positive and negative electrodes and electrolytes. Generic lithium batteries, the positive pole is lithium cobaltate, the negative pole is graphite, after repeated tests, these two materials are the most tacit and stable. And lithium batteries are environmentally friendly without memory effect, compared to the previous nickel-metal hydride batteries do not need to be filled with 100% power every time.
Lithium battery has high energy density and can store more power per unit volume. Other materials are either not enough for smart devices now, or the volume is too large does not meet the current requirements for thin and light electronic devices.
Lithium battery cost-effective, compared to other materials, lithium battery is the most affordable, battery research also has other new positive and negative electrode materials, but the cost is relatively high, involving the commercial promotion of the use of the biggest problem is to reduce costs.
So now the lithium battery technology to get development, to start from the positive and negative materials, to find more efficient and cheaper partner materials than graphite and lithium cobaltate to do, but this is not easy. From another perspective will be, now the battery technology is not improved, but there are many innovations in charging technology, such as fast charging technology, flash charging technology and wireless charging technology is the most popular.
The future direction of battery technology?
Now lithium battery technology is in the development of the bottleneck, but there is still room for development. There are several new materials that are favored by the industry.
Silicon carbon composite material, which is a kind of future battery anode material, has a theoretical capacity of more than 4200mAh/g, which is 10 times higher than the 372mAh/g of graphite material.
If mass production capacity will be greatly improved; lithium titanate, the main advantage of this battery is the long life, cycle life of more than 10,000 times, belongs to the zero strain material, its volume change is small fish 1%, does not generate the traditional SEI film, relatively high safety, high thermal stability during charging and discharging, can achieve fast charging. Graphene, graphene good light transmission, strong electrical conductivity, high thermal conductivity, high mechanical strength, but due to the current mass production process is immature, high prices, unstable performance, now the general user graphene liquid cooling heat dissipation; carbon nanotubes, which is a graphitized structure of carbon materials, with good electrical conductivity, due to its deembedded lithium when the depth is small, short stroke, as a negative material in the large multiplier charge and discharge polarization Because of its small depth and short travel, it can improve the performance of large rate charging and discharging of batteries.
Lithium-rich manganese cathode material, which is a high density cathode material, compared to the cathode material lithium iron phosphate 580Wh/kg capacity density, its density can reach 900Wh/kg. although it has obvious capacity advantages but the cost of research and development is also relatively large, the development is relatively slow. Ceramic alumina, ceramic composites have always been a new material research hotspots, for battery materials is not uncommon, ceramic alumina is mainly used in the battery separator, which is aimed at the battery system coated with a larger compartment space, but the production process is very demanding and relatively expensive.
