Samsung-affiliated scientists claim to have discovered a way to increase the energy capacity of lithium-ion batteries and the new technology could just about double the battery life of present-day smartphones.
The key to the new technology rests in the ability to take advantage of a silicon coating which supports graphene growth over nanoparticles without inducing a silicon carbide formation, as doing so would disrupt the transference of energy, and that’s what South Korean multinational conglomerate’s scientists managed to do with their graphene-coated silicon anodes.
The discovery was made by a team of Samsung-affiliated scientists who published the findings of their research last week in the journal Nature.
In order to pull off the trick, the team anchored graphene layers onto a silicone surface via a sliding process between adjacent graphene layers which was paired with a commercial lithium cobalt oxide cathode to achieve volumetric energy densities 1.8 times greater than those of current commercial lithium-ion batteries.
Even after their 200th charge cycle, the anodes created by the team held 1.5 times more volumetric energy density than the lithium-batteries of today.
While the Samsung-funded paper’s findings sound enticing, PC World notes in a report that it’s “just a research paper” for now, but the researchers are hopeful that this new technique might “serve as a prototype in advancing silicon anodes to commercially viable technology.”
According to the research paper, Samsung is presently in the process of patenting the new battery-improving technology.
In addition to increasing the energy density of lithium-ion batteries, the new technology would also improve upon the longevity of the next-generation batteries.
9 to 5 Google noted in a report that the new system could not only be used to increase battery power, but also to reduce the size of batteries and as a result: make phones even more compact than they already are.
In other news, Tesla Motors has unveiled a new $3,500 wall-mounted energy storage unit capable of powering a home.
