Well, that didn’t take long. We mentioned battery technology on our list of ‘wants’ in this decade and there is some exciting news coming from Monash University.
Imagine having access to a battery, which has the potential to power your phone for five continuous days, or enable an electric vehicle to drive more than 1000km without needing to “refuel”.
monash.edu
Lithium-Sulfur comes up in the news every so often but there might finally be a breakthrough to make it viable for mass production. The researchers have been able to create bonds between the particles inside the battery to withstand stress and not lose capacity or performance at the same time.
Current battery technology hasn’t seen a massive jump in performance for years now. Most of the lithium batteries in our cameras have around 300 charge cycles before their capacities go down to about 75%. Branded replacement batteries cost upwards of $50 each and if you need backups, it adds up fast.
The researchers claim an energy density 4x higher than current batteries and prototypes have already been manufactured in Germany to be tested in Australia later this year. They are hoping that your smartphone will go 5 days without charge, and also break the 1000km on a single charge milestone for electric cars. You can read the entire press release here.