New lithium-ion battery could last 20 years, long after you've broken the devices they once powered
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted February 5th 2010 11:34AM
posted February 5th 2010 11:34AM
Modern gadgetry (you know, as opposed to "ancient gadgetry," such as the abacus and the hour glass) lives and dies by its batteries, so it's no surprise that lots of time and effort is spent researching both wacky alternatives to the tried and true power cell, as well as ways to make existing cells better. Among the latter, Nikkei is reporting that Eamex in Osaka, Japan, has developed a lithium-ion battery that will last some twenty years of regular use -- that's 10,000 charges! The secret to the long-lasting lithium-ion? In current designs, the tin that's used for the battery's negative electrode weakens through continual charging and recharging. The new design, however, calls for tin-coated resin that stabilizes the electrode and prevents deterioration. Why didn't we think of that? Look forward to seeing these exciting, new batteries debut in electric scooters sometime this year. [Warning: Source link requires subscription]
@kedmond wrong, go read about material science. Simply increasing the surface area of the anode and cathode will easily triple the power and energy density of today's batteries. Have you heard of Lithium Air batteries. Lithium is only half of the lithium battery, the anode materials are the weak spot in current designs. Saying "never" in a post about batteries or other technology is foolish.
@cosmicinglewood oh and another thing, fuel cell vehicles are electric! All the more reason to move forward with Lithium EV's now; that way when the Fuel Cell finally becomes commercially practical is 30 years, we can swap the Lithium Arrays out of the electric cars with a Fuel cell better, which incidentally will be much less complex than converting a gas/diesel vehicle to electric/ bev or fuel cell. And for myself and everyone else who lost $ in Ballard Power systems, I have heard enough about these so called "miracle fuel cells"; BEV's now, Fuel Cells when they become practical...
@cosmicinglewood The #1 reason locomotives don't drive the wheels directly through diesel engines is torque. Electric motors have instant max torque, while diesel/gas engines have to ramp up in RPM before reaching max torque. This isn't as big of an issue for cars.
@kedmond
Assuming that we already know all the chemical elements in the periodic table, lithium is simply the best anode for a battery and nothing can beat it. It has the highest potential against hydrogen (3V), giving it high power density, and is the lightest metal. But it is true that it has a theoretical maximum electrochemical equivalence of 6 Ah/g. And that is set in stone. Currently lithium ion batteries get about half of that. Because a battery contains a lot of other things besides lithium, the energy density is lower. So no matter how we construct a battery, and no matter what cathode we use, there are always going to be limitations. Lithium Air batteries have the highest energy density, because the active material comes from the air, but they have horrible power densities and are nowhere near commercialization.
energizer will bankrupt
wtf? i thought it meant it stayed charged for 20 years too! i was gonna write a nice comment, but SCREW THIS
This, if completely true, is huge.
I'm not worried as much about longevity as I am about capacity. They need to figure out how to increase the capacity at least by 5 times or electric vehicles will never catch on. I wanna get a Nissan Leaf but it can only go 100 miles on a single charge and that's just not acceptable.
Bah, that's just one of those fantastic things that will not see daylight anytime soon. Like the holographic 20TB storage tapes or nuclear fusion that generates more power than it needs in order to get started.
I'm not saying it's not going to come out some day. That kind of news is just more sci-fi than real news.
I really don't care if the battery lasts for 20 years but of course I'm referring to it's application to small devices, like cell phones or ipods. While lithium-ion batteries allow device makers to make smaller devices, it still sucks that they don't last long at all.
I would much rather have a battery that lasts 5 years but could go at least 1 - 2 days without charge. Hate having to charge mid-day or stop using the device just to save battery life. I miss the Nokia phones, 2-3 days without charge was the standard... :(
Neat tech, but it'll probably drive up the cost of rechargeable batteries, since they won't have to be replaced. Now if only they could universalize a few different devices (like cell phones) so they could deduct the battery cost on a new phone and you could just switch your old battery over.
@utkhexon yes, we need a standard LiPO battery format for mobile phone devices for sure. The problem is that form factors require custom sizes, and for the sake of competition, LG and others want to be able to put specific battery capacities for a given design. Likewise their is a profit motive. But just as the charging/plug standard is going to micro-usb formats away from all of those strange proprietary expensive formats, soon too we should see a move towards a battery standard.
@utkhexon The low-discharge rate Eneloops from Sanyo that are rated for 1000 charges (still a crapload) aren't anymore expensive than their regular (but slightly higher capacity) packs.
@Ducman69 I know! I have some in my wireless mouse right now, Sanyo Eneloop said what? They are quality cells, unlike the LSD NiMH from Nexcell.
Wait do they last 20 years of continued use or do they last 20 years of regular use?
@Undefined69 10,000 charges- read the post!
pretty amazing
A few years ago my grandfather gave my brother his old camera with flash. The flash had Duracell batteries that were more than 10 years old (before they put dates on them), and they still worked.