According to CNN, a physics research professor from the UK has developed a new polymer gel battery that may replace bulky, not to mention potentially dangerous, lithium batteries most commonly found in today's laptops.
...The new polymer gel can be formed into a thin, flexible film through a low-cost process. This film, which would lie between a battery's electrodes, would eliminate one need of traditional lithium batteries — to have multiple cells kept apart by a porous polymer film separator.In addition to reducing weight and size, these new batteries could be made at about 10 percent of the cost of creating current batteries.
A lighter-weight, cheaper-to-make battery for my laptop that doesn't run the risk of spontaneously combustion? Count me in.
The product has been licensed to an American company that is currently conducting trials in order to commercialize the product for future use in consumer electronics.
This is really cool, I hope this takes off!
ReplyDeleteSounds good. I wonder how much weight this would save for computer that are already really light, like the Macbook Air, or for tablets.
ReplyDeleteI wonder about battery life, though. Tablets are getting ~10 hours and most Macbooks get 5-7 hours now. If this saves a pound of weight, is it worth losing 1-3 hours of battery life?
That a darn good question Gideon (Weight -vs- battery life)...Can't we have both? :-)
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