In one of the major statements to come out since the battery recall the Sony Electronics President Stan Glasgow said that notebook makers worldwide are likely to select lithium polymer batteries over the Li-ion batteries for their next laptops. He said that the Li-ion batteries have been now pushed to the limit (capacity wise) and as Lithium is a volatile substance even a little spark can cause a chain reaction which then might lead to an explosion. These exploding Sony’s Li-ion batteries lead to a massive recall of about 9 million batteries. In these new lithium polymer batteries the Li is placed in a gel there by reducing the explosion chances but these do not give same sort of energy density as is given by Li-ion batteries. Although these polymer batteries were produced 9 years ago but they do not provide the long life as a Li-ion can give. In spite of the struggle that these polymer batteries have faced many Phone manufacturers are using them and many more companies are also coming out with the alternatives that are non-lithium based.
Li-ion
Not waiting for the IEEE to release new standards for the now famous Li-ion batteries the Matsushita Electric Industrial has jumped the gun and has come up with what they say a safer Li-ion battery. The new cell is a 2.9Ah unit which can then be combined into two cells and six cells battery packs to make notebook batteries. This new battery has a heat resistant layer (HRL) in the cell which has allowed the company to boost the energy density and mass produce safer batteries. This HRL that separates anode and cathode provides better protection than polyolefin. The company says if the short circuit occurs it will just cease rather than overheat and explode. Now the company is all set to produce and fill the void left vacant by the Sony’s massive(9.6 million) battery recall. The motto seems why waste time when you can make hay. Dell, Apple, IBM, Toshiba, and Lenovo were the companies that had to suffer recalls due to Sony batteries.
Ever thought of having a laptop that can go on and on for a month before needing a recharge. The world moved one step closer to that dream when Samsung recently displayed futuristic fuel cell docking technology that has ample power to power your laptop for a month. The cell device was displayed with working model of Q35 ultra portable which the company says can run for a month but with various laptops having varied power consumption ratio so it will probably be a far fetched idea to say that all laptops will be able to last a month but still what ever time may it be it will be far better than what laptop batteries are able to provide now. Company further said that their fuel cell has the energy density of 650WH/L; that is just about 4 times the other offerings in the market, further the company claims to have reduced the noise levels a big obstruction in realization of its commercial worth. Samsung also said they are on work on a mini fuel cell that uses little fuel but can power a laptop for 15 hours. Although the safety aspect of these fuel cells are yet to be tested but never the less it is a good innovation.
