New tech allows lithium batteries to charge faster, and hold
charge longer By Bryan Clark November 20, 2011 For those of us
using smart phones, an all-too-familiar problem is that of a
dead battery. The computing power, as well as the multi-purpose
abilities of modern-day phones is nothing short of amazing.
However, until battery life catches up with the functionality,
we're still forced to carry multiple devices. For example, what
good is 32GB of memory to store music and movies if it leaves me
with a dead phone after an hour or two of my favorite tunes?
Even though my phone can easily handle the music and movie
abilities of my iPod, I still carry the iPod. I still have a GPS
in my car, even though my phone is more than capable. New
technology from Northwestern University is aiming to change all
that. Engineers there have created an electrode for lithium-ion
batteries - the rechargeables commonly found in our devices -
that allows them to run ten times longer, while only taking only
one-tenth of the time to