Here at Gadget Lab, we tend to churn through our devices so fast that we never encounter the problem of a tired, worn-out lithium-ion battery, but we have been told that some people keep their computers, cameras and MP3-players for years at a stretch. For you neophobes, Hitachi has good news. Its new li-ion batteries will last for ten years, double the current (ahem) average of five years.
Hitachi’s trick is to use a specially developed new cathode material. It contains manganese, like existing batteries, but it is locked up with other substances to make a more stable crystalline material. This, says Hitachi, slows down the bleeding of cathode into the battery’s electrolyte material. The electrolyte is the material (in this case, lithium salts in a solvent) which stores the chemical energy that will be turned back into electrical energy. The leakage of the cathode into the electrolyte is what eventually stops the battery holding a charge, so less leakage means longer life.
The new tech is bound for use in places like wind-farms, where long battery life is important. It is also cheaper than current methods, so we may well see it in our future iPads. The existing five years of life might already be a long time, but as your trips away from a power-socket get shorter and shorter, it certainly doesn’t seem that way.
The lithium-ion battery cathode materials… [Hitachi via Akihabara News]
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