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from the had-to-conduct-a-battery-of-tests dept.
Have you ever taken the back off your phone and seen that your battery has swollen up like an inflatable pillow? For the first time, scientists have been able to peer deep inside to see what is happening.
Lithium-ion batteries have become ubiquitous in phones, laptops and hoverboards because they are lightweight and hold a lot of charge. However, a recent spate of explosions has raised safety concerns.
One reason these batteries are damage-prone is because of their structure, says Toby Bond at Canadian Light Source, a synchrotron facility in Saskatoon, Canada. They usually contain electrode sheets wrapped in a spiralling "Swiss roll", or "jelly roll", configuration to fit in as many energy-producing layers as possible, but this causes problems if gas forms inside.
Gas can build up if a battery becomes overheated or overcharged, or is left drained of charge for too long. Under these conditions, the liquid components in the battery can vaporise and produce gas. This causes the external casing to swell up, resulting in the characteristic pillow appearance.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 13 2016, @04:23PM
i had such a case.
the device was a "seagate wirless plus" (http://www.seagate.com/as/en/consumer/stream/wireless-plus/)
i used it to store movies and music and then access via wifi it from my android device.
one day i noticed the case bulging. i was concerned it might damage the internal HDD so i
went to a computer shop to ask about fixing the thing: didn't buy it there so "no" they could not RTM the thing ...
i told the tech, then, to open the case and remove the battery.
turns out the HDD inside wasn't a seagate HDD but
rather a samsung(?) and the bulging battery was a samsung too. i kept the battery in a "safe" location (balcony)
because i was worried it might catch fire during the rest of my travels.
after returning back home, i went to the shop where i originally bought the device.
they said, that since i had opened the case to remove the battery, that i had violated the 3 years guarantee ...
i told them that i removed it because i needed to access the hdd (which was possible via usb and no battery) and
that i was worried that connecting the device to a computer via usb3 would send more charging current to the already
bulging battery and that it might damage the hdd or even catch fire (it WAS a samsung battery afterall).
i also told them that they would not have to send it the whole device, put just order a replacement battery.
no go. i took everything home except the bulging battery and i hope that one day they show up to work only to find a big ol' heap of ashes!