Panasonic develops more capacious Li-ion laptop battery
While the IEEE is "hard at work" revising the laptop battery standard so these explosive cells permanently become a thing of the past, Panasonic has developed a new rechargeable battery pack with increased capacity and energy density, hopefully working on previous heat issues as well. The prototype, which is being shown here at CES, reportedly boasts a "20- to 40-percent" increase in capacity by using "an alloy material for the negative electrode instead of a commonly used carbon material" such as graphite carbon. Additionally, energy density per volume is increased to 740 Wh/L, which is 40-percent higher than that of the company's existing product. Notably, Panasonic claims that this newfangled Li-ion pack will tout a "heat-resistant layer made of insulating metal oxide," which purportedly "ensures improved safety while maintaining a current capacity as high as 3.6 Ah." As expected, there was no word on if (or when) this prototype would actually hit production, but the firm did state that it would like to commercialize it "within a few years" if everything progressed nicely.
Filed under: Laptops, Peripherals
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Rogier @ Jan 11th 2007 12:43PM
Does this mean it will give a bigger bang when exploding?
kaztm @ Jan 11th 2007 6:35PM
Rogier,
"Does this mean it will give a bigger bang when exploding?"
I don't think so, because it seems that the larger capacity comes from the deeper discharge cycle, as explained on this board at the CES Panasonic booth.
http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/2007/0110/ces9_4.jpg
Chad @ Jan 11th 2007 1:47PM
Actually I believe Panasonic makes all of their own batteries and have not had to recall any batteries. A lot of laptop manufacturers use Sony produced batteries, while the Panasonic Tough book line only uses batteries produced by Panasonic.
3rdsun @ Jan 11th 2007 7:28PM
If they can fly a plane on AA batteries they can make them last longer
Robert @ Jan 11th 2007 8:11PM
That photo affects a love/hate emotion in me. Batteries don't dye, they just fade away.