Green Tech: Copper Hexacyanoferrate Batteries Can Last 10 to 30 Years [New Battery Technology Being Developed Will Last 40,000 Charge Cycles Or 100 Times More Than Lithium-Ion Batteries For Longer Smartphone, Tablet, Notebook & Digital Camera Battery Life]

Posted on TFTS by J. Angelo Racoma on Sunday, 27. November 2011 under: Computers & Computing, Devices, Green Technology, Mobile/Cell Phones, PCs, Notebooks, Netbooks & Tablets

Smartphones, tablets, notebooks, and other gadgets have a pre-defined lifetime, mostly because of battery chemistry. But a new technology being developed will last 10 to 30 years. Will our devices live that long, though?

After daily and frequent use of your smartphone, tablet, notebook computer, digital camera or just about any gadget, the battery will start to lose capacity in about a year or so. What used to be 5 hours of usable notebook computer power will be steeply reduced to just a 30 minutes. A smartphone lasting two days might soon hold enough charge to last only half the day. This is because normal Lithium-based batteries can only be charged about 500 to 1,000 times or so, before losing the capacity to hold charge. And with some devices — notably Apple’s iPhone, iPad, iPod and MacBook products — having non user-replaceable batteries, a depleted battery will be difficult to replace, and can make the device unusable.

Scientists from Stanford University are currently working on new battery chemistry using Copper Hexacyanoferrate. This technology’s structure charge-carrying ions move through the electrode more easily, and is built with a rugged design. This way, degration is much slower than in a traditional Li-Ion battery. This means faster charges, longer battery life, and longer battery lifetime. Copper Hexacyanoferrate batteries are said to survive up to 40,000 charge cycles, which is about 50 to 100 times more than a Li-Ion battery.

At this rate, researchers say that batteries can be usable for 10 to 30 years!

Of course, the question here is whether your smartphone, notebook, tablet or other gadget will even last that long. With product cycles and the fast pace of development these days, devices are rendered obsolete in only a few months after their launch. Still, the new battery technology will mean less e-waste (they can probably be recycled or reused in other products) and longer usage times.

There is one problem, though. Researchers still have not found a way to create a sealed battery cell that can be adopted for commercial use. So for now, we’re stuck with Li-Ion and Li-Polymer batteries that are certain to give out after a year’s use, which make our smartphones, cameras, notebook and tablets more or less disposable after that time, given the steep cost of batteries compared to buying a new device altogether.