More scientific black magic promises to double Li-ion battery capacity

Go on and file this one away in the folder of "awesome things that could, but won't ever happen." As the brilliant minds around the world figure out how to solve vicious diseases, move motorcars with peanut oil and send engineers to fix a telescope in outer space, we still can't buy a pack of AA cells that last longer than a month or two in our favorite toy. Some call it a limit of physics, some deem it a conspiracy. Whatever the case, we've no doubt whatsoever that a new silicon-containing carbon material -- designed by Dow Corning Toray to double the capacity of existing Li-ion batteries -- won't ever have a real impact in our lives. Of course, it's not like any consumer would actually benefit from having a netbook battery good for 16 hours, nor would wedding photographers enjoy being able to shoot 1,000 indoor shots without cracking the battery door open on their SB-600. No -- that's just absurd. C'mon Dow, prove us wrong here.

[Techie @ May 30th 2009 11:57PM]

Could be A1 steak sauce for all I know....

[Mmmm... Dohnuts. @ May 30th 2009 11:58PM]

*lick!* :O

Not A1...

[Buell @ May 31st 2009 2:08AM]

Never had A1 before eh? :D

[absolutc @ May 31st 2009 12:00AM]

I love to pour A1 all over my body and rub it around. Then go sit in the sun and marinate. That way when I go out and do my errands during the day, people can come up and lick me and be happy!

[nintendo fanboy hater @ May 31st 2009 12:04AM]

@above,

you have bigger problems than battery life.

[rcarm @ May 31st 2009 12:12AM]

*puts on blindfold*

*licks absolutc"

This one tastes good.

*licks nintendo fanboy hater*

Yuck!

[loocas @ May 31st 2009 5:32AM]

Is it natural to have an erection caused by a few anonymous avatars on a tech blog...? o_O

[AbbasJin @ May 31st 2009 12:10AM]

Damn, we really need better battery technology,
i'm sick of my mobile phone giving up on me every two days,
even my laptop won't last more than 3/4 hours.

/me dreams on about having a self sustaining battery in all his gadgets, that could last a month or year on a single charge.

[Noah @ May 31st 2009 12:13AM]

I see Engadget has become jaded. DIdn't think it was possible, but with LiOn batteries, anything is (im)possible.

[Orpheus @ May 31st 2009 12:29AM]

Dammit it's not a big cat. Look it up.

[Supersonicdarky @ May 31st 2009 12:13AM]

It ain't happening.

[sweet greggo @ May 31st 2009 12:15AM]

I tried reading that article. But I'm too dumb. Can anyone explain in egadget commenter speak wtf is the problem?

[Shyam D @ May 31st 2009 1:39AM]

This battery can store more juice in the same amount of space.
Problem is that it takes a lot more energy to charge.

2X charge
> 2X Electricty to charge it up, aka it's less effecient in holding energy.

[Wwhat @ May 31st 2009 1:45AM]

Problem is that they keep announcing new stuff that doubles or triples or quadruples battery life for year after year but you never hear a new battery being released that has twice the capacity as before, it does increase yes, but in baby steps most always.
This in turn makes the tech-news people get jaded and tired of being in a position that they keep relating reports of the breakthroughs that never pan out as expected for reasons unknown.

Breaking news: "Asian boy cries wolf, be on the lookout for wolves"

[whowhatme @ Jun 1st 2009 12:06PM]

sensationalist media looking for eyepopping headlines?

[CloudAge @ May 31st 2009 12:22AM]

Big business wont let this reach fruition even if the do succeed. This would kill profits as people would buy much less disposable batteries! As well as the cost of electricity needed to charge the others!

[Justin F @ May 31st 2009 12:29AM]

That's not the reason. They could more than double the price so their profits stay the same, as consumers would pay anything for convenience. That's why Logic can charge multiple bills for a f*in remote.

They could decrease their environmental impact by reducing toxic landfill waste, and use it as a selling point for all those tree-hugging modern avacado-loving hippies.

So what's the real reason, Darren?

[Timoh @ May 31st 2009 12:33AM]

Dow is big business, if they didn't want anything to come out of it they wouldnt have said anything. This isnt some small college group working from a converted janitors closet.

[ripslymemc @ May 31st 2009 3:14AM]

trees and avocados are good...

:)

[Timoh @ May 31st 2009 12:28AM]

Theres no reason this wont happen, its like the advances from NiMH, NiCad, etc.

[idiot @ May 31st 2009 12:30AM]

cynical much?

[idiot @ May 31st 2009 12:31AM]

...yeah, you're right...'snot happening

[Cardbored @ May 31st 2009 12:33AM]

Bring on the electric cars baby!

or

now those 88 jiggawatts doesnt seem like that much

[Lando Calrissian @ May 31st 2009 1:56AM]

88 jiggawatts could power the new M17x for a total of 10 seconds.

[d?niel @ May 31st 2009 8:43AM]

i think you're mixing something up!
1.21 jiggawatts is more than enough :)

[Cardbored @ May 31st 2009 9:34AM]

thats what i was looking for. It's 88 mph and 1.21 jiggawatss

[Carter @ May 31st 2009 9:50AM]

That's brown magic

[Ran @ May 31st 2009 12:57AM]

If it actually works, the battery companies will team together to buy up the patent and shelve it forever. Standard operating procedure.

[Luke @ May 31st 2009 1:07AM]

Let me know when something actually results from this, until then I am not holding my breath.

[Miles @ May 31st 2009 1:09AM]

I'm sure these are twice as explosive as well

[loocas @ May 31st 2009 5:37AM]

Only in the hands of Apple...

[Miles @ May 31st 2009 2:46PM]

I believe you mean Sony, loocas.

[Wesley @ May 31st 2009 5:49AM]

Yeah cool and all but there was already a discovery at the end of last year by a South Korean university professor to improve lithium ion battery life, making it last 8 times longer that currently available batteries.

[thain @ Jun 1st 2009 9:39AM]

And obviously that discovery works 100%, is easily manufactured, and is now widely available in commercial products such as cars to electric toothbrush batteries, therefore all further research should stop.

[Joseph @ May 31st 2009 7:10AM]

My Japanese is a little rusty, but I think the picture says "prototype sample".

[d?niel @ May 31st 2009 8:41AM]

purototaipu sanpuru ^__^

its funny how you can understand a lot of things in japanese without actually having a large vocabulary.
regards,

danieru - ダニエル

[Chris Leither @ May 31st 2009 9:20AM]

You guys are correct... it does read Prototype Sample... though with the funny Japanese spelling ... ^^

[Andy TGD @ May 31st 2009 9:49AM]

"More scientific black magic promises to double Li-ion battery capacity"

and double the size of the inevitable explosions! Yeehaw! :P

[MattyG @ May 31st 2009 12:12PM]

perhaps the battery vs usage thing is like page's law

the better the battery you can get the more wasteful you can be with it

[Satoru @ May 31st 2009 3:46PM]

The real problem isn't the technology but how the technology can be delivered to the consumer. You can make a battery that lasts 3-4 or even 10 times longer than current lithium batteries. However they usually have the following problems:

1) Cost! Using silver you can make a much better battery. But since silver is crazy expensive, no one really wants to make a battery made out of it since no one will buy it due to the cost. This can be said of any battery technology that requires some kind of expensive esoteric chemical or element.
2) Physical issues. Current batteries expand and contract during charge/discharge, so the materials need to be sturdy enough to withstand this. That's one reason why graphite is currently used. Or you can have a battery that runs very hot during discharge. Or maybe it can only be recharged 100 times. Maybe it weighs too much. etc etc

You just can't predict how these things will go. Lithium Ion batteries needed about 15-20 years from its initial discovery to get to a commercially viable product in the 1990's. We will probably have to wait that long for the next revolutionary battery like the switch from Ni-Cad to Li-Io.

[thereal2shy @ May 31st 2009 6:34PM]

I don't agree about your time frames man.. its all about how much R&D money is put into improving the technology.

I don't know what idiot wrote that article but its not about getting 1000 shots from your camera OR making your toys run longer..
The holy grail here is batteries for Electric vehicles and Household power supplies..

The biggest stumbling block for the take up of Electric vehicles and home power generation systems like PV and wind is the limited storage of power.. this is why so many companies around the world are trying to develop better power cells. because the company with the highest power density will be able to sell millions and millions of cells to the car companies... its the new black gold.

[Dev Null @ May 31st 2009 11:53PM]

Now you're thinking with portals.

[Chief @ May 31st 2009 9:49PM]

They have not doubled the capacity of a Li-ion battery. Their material doubles the capacity of the anode, but that requires a similarly high-capacity cathode, which does not exist. It's like coming up with a new high performance gasoline, but there are no engines that can burn it. There are plenty of announcements like this. In fact, every time engadget reports on a new material that increases the capacity of Li-ion, they misquote the article.

[photofanatic @ May 31st 2009 10:23PM]

Actually, if you pop some Sanyo 2700 mAh AA's into an SB-600, you can probably get around 300 full power flashes out of a fully charged set of batteries. And if you're in a situation where you're using fill flash or another application where not much power is needed, it would be very possible to get 1000 flashes from a set of batteries. It's all about the monster NiMH batteries and the shooting conditions. Sanyo or Maha 2700's with a good charger (like the Maha C-9000) will blow you away with how long they last. And they easily pay for themselves after a few recharge cycles. There are still some situations where alkalines are good, but they generally hold half the power of a good set of rechargeables. With the low-se lf-discharge models on the market these days (like sanyo eneloops), why do people still buy alkalines?