If you asked me about just one thing for improvement in smart devices, I think my answer would be the battery. On the one hand, its autonomy leaves much to be desired if we do not manage it. On the other, any battery included in any device is dangerous if it is not treated well, and this has been demonstrated on many occasions, such as when a cyclist fell with an iPhone in his pocket or when it occurred to Samsung to step on the edges of the batteries of his Galaxy Note 7.
What is certain is that it is understandable that no company, not even Apple, dares to take the step to include new battery technology in any type of device, since it is not worth risking and putting a whole firecracker in your pocket of customers. But there are technologies that seem very interesting, such as a battery created by Mike Zimmerman that will not explode like the aforementioned Note 7 or iPhone of the cyclist no matter how much we mistreat them. In fact, we can cut this new battery with scissors and it will not suffer any damage beyond its logical decrease in autonomy.
New battery withstands bumps, punctures and even cuts
In the previous video they show us several things: the first thing that I found interesting is what can happen when we mistreat one of the batteries that we use in any device today: in the best of cases, we will only see black smoke, but the most common is to see how the battery is engulfed in flames or even explodes. After showing these examples, the video guest cut one of the Zimmerman batteries with scissors And nothing happens absolutely.
Zimmerman is the CEO of Ionic Materials and has created these new batteries replacing the liquid electrolyte and separator with a special polymer plastic which creates a completely solid battery. While liquid electrolyte is flammable, Zimmerman's plastic electrolyte delays the onset of flames.
Another interesting point about the batteries that Zimmerman has developed is that your manufacturing cost could be lower that of current batteries thanks to the fact that the plastic electrolyte used is manufactured with the same process as garbage bags or the use of other large volume plastics. But the most important thing is that this new application of plastic could double the energy density of a battery, which would translate into batteries with greater autonomy in the same space.
The main problem that Zimmerman runs into is reliability. It seems clear that internal testing is a success, but what if manufacturing volume were much more important? To avoid unpleasant surprises, Zimmerman would need some battery manufacturing partner that could take care of all the necessary tests and manufacture them in industrial quantities. For this reason, it does not seem likely that this invention will be included in an electronic device in the short term.
In any case, the Galaxy Note 7 has shown that something must be done to improve battery safety, not to mention that we would all like to enjoy more autonomy. Who and when will take the step that allows us to have better batteries in our mobile devices?