Laying the Groundwork for Longer Battery Life

Batteries with Long Life – Interact with Technology

Some of the common complaints regarding cell phone or the laptop are regarding the battery life which tends to turn off when needed the most. We are inclined to rely on technology which is an integral part of our life and find it difficult to do anything without it.

 We would find it extremely difficult to cope up with our life even for a short period of time without our cell phone which tends to connect us with the external world. The faculty from Drexel’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering have discovered this topic in a latest invited article in Nature Energy – `Perspective’. Batteries having long life and tend to charge instantly could change how we interact with our technology.

Anne Steven Assistant Professor Ekaterina Pomerantseva together with Distinguished University and Charles T. as well as Ruth M. Bach Chair Professor Yury Gogotsi suggested that the next generation batteries have been developed by combining different two-dimensional 2D materials in heterostructured electrodes and would immensely enhance battery life and charge storage potentials, thus changing the technology setting. The term `2D’ materials is utilised in describing materials which tend to be developed in single layer, like a sheet of paper which is only one or many atoms thick.

2D Heterostuctured Electrodes

These exceptional materials have started portraying amazing potentials for different properties which could be applied to a wide selection of applications. The most frequently known 2D materials are said to be graphene together with various graphene modification, transition metal dischalcogenides – TMDCs, transition metal oxides –TMOs together with transition metal carbide/nitrides – MXenes.

Individually, these material families tend to display definite benefits for energy storage applications though simultaneously tend to have some shortcomings. Pomerantseva had commented that they suggest that in order to eradicate the shortcomings while maintaining most of the benefits of these opposing 2D materials is in creating what is known as 2D heterostructed electrodes composed of interchanging layers of various 2D materials which tend to portray various functionalities.

The single layer structure of 2D materials is for the most part valuable for the purpose of energy storage properties since these thin materials tend to have a great surface range that enables quick diffusion of ions from an electrolyte, which is a liquid utilised in transporting ions between two electrodes. This quick movement of ions on the surface permits a battery to charge immediately. Besides this the 2D material also makes provision for a denser packing of ions between the layers that leads to the battery stocking the charge for a longer period.

Contrary Chemical Reaction

Though there is an opportunity that the solvent utilised in the electrolyte tends to have the possibility of causing a contrary chemical reaction with the electrode in the battery resulting in reduced battery performance, the ability of 2D materials for enhanced battery performance tends to outweigh the potential challenges.

In order to build these 2D heterostructures a parallel orientation or interface of layers of various 2D materials is essential. Gogotsi has informed that the interface of materials in this way tends to optimize their unique properties. For instance, on combining various layers of TTMO together with graphene, a high capacity of oxide as well as high electronic conductivity of carbon could be attained in the resulting 2D heterostructure which could lead to a battery having high energy together with high power.

There is a possibility of modifying the 2D heterostructures still further by integrating different types of inorganic ions, organic molecules and also polymers, which are known as species between the layers. This integration of these interlayer species could lead to various developments in electrochemical properties. The interlayer species could extend the interlayer spacing enabling additional electrochemically cycling ions in being incorporated between the layers which could lead to a higher capacity which in turn could lead to energy density of the batteries.

Insertion/Extraction

Moreover due to the interactions between the layers as well as the interlayer species, the structural stability of the electrodes through multiple cycles of ions is said to go through insertions and extraction which can be enhanced. Should the interlayer species be charged, their presence between the layers could disturb the diffusion of electrochemically cycled ion inclusive of the acceleration of the diffusion that tends to lead to batteries with better power.

Utilising 2D heterostructured electrodes with suitably selected interlayer species seem to have abundant promise in developing a battery which would not only charge quickly but also hold an individual charge for a longer period and will also tend to last longer over several charge and discharge cycles.

 Pomerantseva had informed that if such a battery is utilised in powering a car, it would be capable of greater driving range before the need of a re-charge, and the re-charge process would take a short duration of time. Moreover the owner of the car would possibly desire to buy a new car well before the light indicating that the battery required to be replaced is illuminated.

Looking for the Next Boost in Rechargeable Batteries

An Alteration to Lithium-Sulfur Battery

The USC researchers have come up with a solution for rechargeable batteries. In the January issue of the Journal of the Electrochemical Society, which had been published by Sri Narayan and Derek Moy of the USC Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute, outlines how they had designed a modification to the lithium-sulfur battery which could be more competitive with the industry standard lithium-ion battery.

The lithium sulphur batter which was presumed to be better in energy storage ability than the well=known lithium-ion counterpart had been vulnerable due to its short life span. The lithium=sulphur battery, presently can be recharged 50 to 100 times, unreasonable as an alternative energy source in comparison to 1,000 times, for several rechargeable batteries in the present day market.

The solution planned by Narayan together with lead author and research assistant Moy is what they call the `Mixed Conduction Membrane’, or MCM. This is a small piece of non-porous invented material inserted between two layers of porous separators, soaked in electrolytes which are placed in the midst of two electrodes.

MCM – Essential Movement of Lithium ions

The membrane acts as a block in decreasing the transporting of dissolved polysulfides among anode and cathode. This is a process which tends to increase the type of cycle strain makes use of lithium-sulfur batteries for the purpose of energy storage an experiment.

The MCM enables the essential movement of lithium ions, imitating the procedure as it takes place in lithium-ion batteries. This innovative membrane solution tends to preserve the high-discharge rate ability together with energy density without losing the capacity over a period of time. The researchers had discovered that the lithium-sulfur batteries which have a tendency to make use of MCM at several rates of discharge, had led to 100% capacity retention and had around four times longer life in comparison to batteries without the membrane.

According to Narayan, senior author and professor of chemistry at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Science had stated that this progress removes one of the major technical barriers to the commercialization of the lithium-sulfur battery, enabling them to realize improved options for energy efficiency.

Lithium-Sulfur Batteries/Lithium-ion Batteries

It is said that lithium-sulfur batteries tends to have a lot of advantage over lithium-ion batteries and are made with plenty and cheap sulphur. They are two to three times denser making them both smaller and better at storing charge.

According to researchers, lithium-sulfur battery could be appropriate in saving space in mobile phones as well as computers. Moreover, it would also reduce weight in the forthcoming electric vehicles inclusive of cars, together with planes thereby further reduction in reliance on fossil fuels. The real MCM layer developed by Narayan and Moy is said to be a thin film of lithiated cobalt oxide but future alternate materials may produce much improved effects.

Any alternative material utilised as an MCM, according to Narayan and Moy should satisfy some vitalstandards. The material should be non-porous and should have mixed conduction properties and it should be electrochemically inactive.The research had been financed by USC together with the Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute.

Six Questions About Your Phone's Battery Answered

Guidance to Phone’s Battery

One of the constant problem faced by smartphone users is the battery life and while the handsets tend to be quite faster and powerful, its batteries tend to last for a shorter time in a day due to heavy usage or even moderate use after a period of time. The lithium-ion battery seemed to be around for over two decades and has not changed since Sony began developing them in 1991. Inspite of great efforts invested in replacing them, these batteries seem to be with in use for several more years. The following guidance could be helpful regarding phone’s battery:

1. Do I need to charge the phone when I get it?

It is not necessary to charge on receiving the phone. Earlier battery types like nickel cadmium had memory effect which meant that the batteries could maintain some capacity depending on how they had been charged and discharged. This would mean that electronic products usually come with advice to charge them completely and keep them plugged in for hours prior to use. But in the case of modern lithium-ion batteries, several people tend to agree that there is no such effect and the batteries seem to be dependable. A smartphone is fine to run out of box without filling in, beforehand.

2. Does battery life get worse over a period of time?

The battery tends to weaken over time. Modern lithium-ion batteries have been designed to withstand a certain amount of cycles, a full drain of the battery and a cycle is equal to a battery fully draining though all this does not have to be from one charge. As per Apple, one could use 75% of the battery’s capacity one day and then recharge it fully overnight. If one uses 25% the next day, one would have discharged a total of 100% and the two days would add up to one charge cycle. The lifetime of batteries measure in cycles seems to vary between various devices, though naturally have between 300 and 500 full cycles prior to reaching 70% of their original capacity. That is equal to a couple of years of usage, but the graph shown from Battery University indicates that capacity tends to begin to drop down quickly.

3. Does leaving the smartphone charging damage the battery?

Generally it does not damage the battery. There have been recommendations that keeping the phone charged overnight or continuously could force the battery to weaken since it tends to receive more power than needed. New battery systems nevertheless knows to reduce this to a trickle and only tops up a battery with the power needed. The exclusion is in very hot situations since heat tends to cause lithium-ion batteries to deteriorate somewhat reducing its performance. Since charging a phone tends to heat up a bit, combining this with the hot temperature could cause the damage. You could keep the phone comparatively cool while charging by placing it out of the sun for instance.

4. Can the phone be charged often or should wait till the phone battery has gone well down before charging it?

New lithium-ion batteries tend to gain nothing by being powered down and long charging cycles tend to be worse than short ones. Incomplete discharges and charges seem to prolong battery life, 50% discharges tend to occur between 1,200 and 1,500 times prior to capacity drops of 70% of its original span when compared to 300 to 500 for 0-100% charges. This efficiently would mean running the phone down 50%, charging it up again and running it down to 50% again would be better than a complete discharge.

5. Does turning off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth improve the battery life? What about airplane mode?

Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are not power hungry as they tend to be or as the phone’s cellular radio. Keeping them on would not possibly drain a vast amount of battery, though if one wants to completely maximise efficiency, it could help somewhat. Having the cellular radio look for signal in location where there is no signal, could be draining. You could activate airplane mode if the mobile signal is not needed. If you can connect to Wi-Fi go ahead – using 4G or 3G tends to drain the battery quicker than Wi-Fi.

6. How else can battery be saved?

Various things can be done to decrease how much power the phone could be utilising that will keep your battery lasting for a longer period of time and would deteriorate more slowly which include:

• Turning down the screen brightness 
• Disabling location as well as background app refresh for apps which do not tend to need it 
• Not closing the apps in multitasking – they are idle and opening them later on would tend to use up more battery 
• Disabling push notifications for email, Twitter and Facebook

How to Save or Increase Battery life in Android and iPhone

The battery of Android phones and iPhone used to be big concern for all users as the battery won’t last till the end of the day, that’s gradually has improved a lot now but it is still sometimes be difficult to get through a day without running the battery dry. Frequent travelers and business persons know the valud of this battery, because its hard for them to go without charge on their phones. These Android phones and iPhone keeps you entertained, so who will not love to save or increase its battery life, Let’s have a look on few things which can actually save your battery life.

Dim the screen brightness

Everyone loves Smartphone’s large, colorful attractive display, but that’s the one which consumes the max out of your battery more than any other app. Most phones will be having auto adjust brightness option to suit the atmosphere lightning. Though Auto brightness mode will save lot of battery for you, keeping the screen in a dim mode will extend the life of your battery gradually.

Turn Off Location Services 

IPhone and iPads are having the inbuilt GPS for many functions, such as Google maps. You may be surprised when you know that there are many other apps which use GPS, so it consumes a lot of battery life. You can turn it off all Location Services or just turn it off for any particular apps by going to Settings > Privacy > Location Services. You can even turn off GPS settings on your Android phones which will improve your battery life.

Keep the screen timeout short

In your phone there is a option called Screen Timeout which locks the phone after a certain period of time if the phone is idle, Every second gets counted here, so set your timeout to the shortest. On most of the smart phones the Timeout will be 2 mins, you can reduce it to 30 seconds. On a iPhone the minimum is 1 min which we can set.

Disable notifications 

On a Android, iPhone it displays lot of notifications which use up battery life. In both the phones you can disable the notifications of each app. You have to manually disable for all the apps.

Turn off vibration 

Turning off the vibrating alerts on your Android, iPhone can surely help improving your battery life. Go to the Profiles setting where you can disable the vibration.

Turn off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth

Most of the users keep their device wifi and Bluetooth on, which constantly searches out for signals and which is a serious battery drainer. Keeping it turn off and using it on the needed time will definitely add 1 hour of battery life to your phone.

Don't leave apps running in the background

These Smartphones are known for the ability to run more than one app at a time. But it also burns a lot of energy, every app running at background using your phone`s processor and battery.. By killing those apps that you aren't actually using, will drastically save you battery and will improve the processor of your device.