Since the invention of the medium-term computer chip, great technological progress has been made.
The 20 th century can be simply told with a story: Moore's law.
Every few years, the number of transistors-its "on" or "off" function is the switch of the components of the calculation --
Can be placed on the chip can double.
Combined with other technical improvements, this means that the processor will double its power every 18 months.
Since the birth of Moore's law, it has remained stable for more than 40 years.
It explains the amazing progress of electronic products in just one generation;
That's why billions of smartphones in their pockets are thousands of times more powerful than the best computers of decades ago.
But when it comes to batteries that power these devices, there is nothing equal to Moore's law. The lithium-
Ion technology in smartphones or laptops has not changed significantly since Sony first commercialized in 1991.
What is the older power of our car: the basic design of internal combustion engines and lead
For decades, the acid batteries of every popular car have barely changed.
In most of the history of these designs, there is little incentive to change them-they have been working well for a long time and the batteries rarely appear in people's minds.
Mobile phones in the 2000 s will last for several days without charging.
In the past decade, however, the smartphone era has left the current battery technology seriously inadequate.
The latest iphone features 16 times the size of the iphone that Jobs released nine years ago, but the battery still lasts only one day.
Taking into account the power gap between the two, this is an engineering feat, but it is achieved through a more efficient processor rather than a better battery.
As far as milli is concerned-
Amp hours-an indicator of battery capacity-only 22 percentage points improvement between the original iPhone in 2007 and last year's 6 s model.
Design of a lithium battery
Ion batteries are relatively simple.
When the battery is charged, the electrons flow through the circuit to the negative pole, attracting lithium ion-electricity-
Charged particles-contained in a solution called electrolyte.
When using the battery, these ions are transferred through the solution to the negative pole, in the process of releasing the electrons, and then power the device. It is fairly-
Therefore, it is difficult to repair basic chemistry.
With so many elements, lithium has proven to be the best element in the task at hand.
Improvements tend to come from adjusting the chemical composition of the electrode or electrolyte, but over time this improvement is gradual and becomes more difficult.
While technology's richest companies are very focused on batteries, capacity tends to increase at around 5 units a year.
In fact, many manufacturers have found the best way to improve the battery, which is to make the battery bigger and thus allow room for more ions.
This is not good enough for most people.
Our smartphones are shifting from an important part of our lives to the essential part.
We pay for things with them, communicate with them, and navigate by them.
It would be painful if they failed.
But that's nothing compared to electric cars or life-saving health equipment running out of power.
Solar energy, which is expected to account for a large part of our energy consumption in the future, will require high
Capacity storage when the sun is unable to deliver.
Driven by the past
The reliance on batteries is growing and a lot of time and money is now being invested to build a successor to lithiumion.
Scientists at the University of Cambridge developed "lithium-
They claim air battery capacity could be 10 times that of lithium today. ion technology.
By partially using the electrons in oxygen in the air, rather than the electrons stored at one end of the battery, it promises to make great progress in capacity-driving an electric car from London to Edinburgh with just one charge.
The idea of lithium-
The air design of what Cambridge scientists call the "ultimate battery" has been around for decades, but the traditional lithium-
The design of the peroxide has proven to be unstable and cannot survive multiple charges.
A new chemical composition instead of using lithium hydroxide, resulting in fewer chemical reactions to run out of the battery and has been re-developed
Charge more than 2,000 times.
Researchers from the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois announced a separate breakthrough last week that revealed lithium-
It says the super-oxide battery solves many of the major problems with other lithium-air batteries.
However, the commercial application of these ideas is expected to take several years, and it may take at least ten years.
Another solution may not be better batteries, but better ways to power them.
Loughborough-based UK smart energy company claims to be the first to use hydrogen fuel cells in consumer electronics.
Henri Winand, the company's chief executive, said his technology prototype could be used to power smartphones for a week or for drones for hours instead of 30 minutes.
Instead of charging, the fuel cell can be swapped out when needed.
The company also partnered with Suzuki to power fuel cell scooters and signed an agreement with an unnamed "emerging" smartphone maker to use its technology.
"We don't need to plan our lives around the plug," Winand said . " He said fuel cells
Smartphones can only last 18 months.
But for many consumers and companies that rely on battery power, this is not fast enough, or it will take at least a few years to reach mainstream applications.
Meanwhile, technology companies are betting on lithium --
Ion is the preferred technology for the foreseeable future.
Tesla, an electric car company run by PayPal billionaire Elon Musk, is expected to become one of the world's largest battery consumers.
It is estimated to spend $ 5bn. £3. 5bn)on a lithium-
The ion battery "Gigabit plant" in the desert of Nevada ".
Instead of relying on breakthrough technology, many consumer electronics companies are working on technologies such as wireless charging or fast charging. It can take the battery from the empty battery to 60 pc in half an hour.
Most candidates who may replace our existing batteries still need years of testing and legal approval to make them into cars or mobile phones.
However, whoever wins this game will be one of the breakthroughs of this century.
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