It seems that we're constantly hearing about promising new battery technologies and eventually one of them will stick.
Mike Zimmerman, a professor at Tufts University and founder of Ionic Materials, hopes that his remarkably resilient ionic battery technology will be the one that does. At a glance, his ionic battery technology appears to a legitimate shot at finally pushing the category forward in a significant way.
The reason scientists and researchers pay so much attention to battery design is because today's lithium-ion units have several downsides. As we saw recently with Samsung's Galaxy Note 7 recall, they can overheat and catch fire. Even when they work correctly, lithium-ion batteries degrade over a relatively short time as they go through recharge cycles, and they don't last all that long to begin with.
(Score: 2) by meustrus on Wednesday February 01 2017, @01:59PM
Betteridge says no. TFA is unfortunately mum on any reason to believe otherwise.
If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 01 2017, @02:56PM
Given that it is based upon his research, it is coming from "the founder of Ionic Materials", and we're hearing about it from "hothardware.com" and not from a science or engineering site that is talking about any papers on the subject, I would tend to agree with you. It sounds like buzz generation more than anything else.
(Score: 1) by its_gonna_be_yuge! on Wednesday February 01 2017, @02:09PM
The idea of a lithium metal battery is an old one.
Moli Energy in Vancouver Canada tried to commercialize this in the 80's but ran into problems when aging tests showed that after ~200 recharge cycles, dendrites formed from the lithium anode through the separator and the battery would short causing the separator to melt. After the separator melted the entire battery would short, causing massive heat dissipation and in some cases explosions.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 01 2017, @07:14PM
lithium + water (including from the air) = hydrogen gas. Kinda explosive. Also the reaction is fairly energetic.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 02 2017, @06:38AM
PBS's "Nova" aired Wed. evening with a show titled: "Search for the Super Battery". The show talked about dendrites being a problem of liquid electrolytes. One segment was on this guy and his battery. He claims the dendrites don't form in his battery because it uses a solid dry separator.
Also that it can hold at least twice the energy because it uses solid metal lithium cathode, rather than a lithium compound.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 02 2017, @07:07AM
Replying to my own comment, it just occurred to me that if the batteries containing metallic lithium end up in water and the water gets inside or they are broken open and they get wet, you're going to have a serious exothermic reaction.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday February 01 2017, @02:12PM
Theres a lot of lithium battery chemistries out there, this one hasn't hit wikipedia yet.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium_battery#Chemistries [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Geezer on Wednesday February 01 2017, @04:05PM
Someone should advise Mr. Zimmerman to be careful about public guarantees of absolute safety. Attorneys feed on comments such as this like piranhas on a swimming ox.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Wednesday February 01 2017, @07:48PM
And as everyone knows, schools of piranhas can have explosive effects on oxhides.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 01 2017, @05:08PM
... when I tell you that this new battery is totally, absolutely, onehundertpercently explosion-POOF!!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 01 2017, @05:36PM
Hey, it was a misunderstanding! I meant I can prove the battery will explode!