Lithium-air battery research shows potential paths to next-gen batteries | Hacker News Reader

Lithium-air battery research shows potential paths to next-gen batteries

arstechnica.com

58 pointssuperfx23 comments

> But a commercially viable Li-air battery is still “at least a decade away."

Eh. Why even bother talking about it then? (especially in the context that we've seen tens of these announcements in the past decade).

What all of these "breakthroughs" talk about is that they managed to "double the density for the same cost" or whatever, for only a pin-size battery. Anything scaled beyond that and it starts losing its advantages. That's why we hear about so many battery breakthroughs only to never hear about most of them again. Because when they start getting close to actually making a battery product for the market, they realize it's actually not very competitive at all.

So wake me up when they can make at least a 2,000 mAh smartphone battery that's ready to be commercialized within a year (basically they'd just need to find a customer and start mass production).

Until then it's all fairy tales.

Well at least it's not the Q4 2016 :) https://xkcd.com/678/

>> , for only a pin-size battery. Anything scaled beyond that and it starts losing its advantages

What mechanisms usually responsible ?

> In a press release (PDF), the University of Cambridge scientists admitted that a commercially viable lithium-air battery was still “at least a decade away,” but their research showed that some of the big roadblocks to developing such batteries can be tackled.

Sounds like one of those tech articles that pop every year about that "new" discovery that will be usable in a "decade" for ever and ever.

Ten years: We haven't finished inventing it yet, but when we do, it'll be awesome!

https://xkcd.com/678/

Link to the Science paper abstract (full paper is paywalled): http://www.sciencemag.org/content/350/6260/530.abstract

I distinctly remember reading about lithium-air last year and then the year before that.

All that research success yet no production samples.

ah, they even linked to the article I read in 2012:

http://arstechnica.com/science/2012/06/lithium-air-battery-a...

Battery research news is on par with cancer cure and rapture day news these days.

Cancer treatments have advanced hugely, I'm told.

Also with graphene replacing silicon.

I appreciate this! Sometimes articles don't convey 'this is old technology...that researchers are still refining', instead they tend to be sensational. It's nice to know that this was an older research project (2012, not 2015). I'd rather read sober reporting than to be hyped up on the 'next big thing'. Your citation does this, which is why I appreciate it.

Does this mean your phone would have an air intake? Would it get heavier as it binds with the O2?

When this was discussed a few years ago, I believe the conclusion was that yes, the battery would gain weight as it depleted in energy.

Deleted comment

No, but we don't walk around through a sea of graphite. I would expect that a properly filtered air intake would be likely, since a chunk of lithium (a solid at room temperatures, and this quite dense) would need vast volumes of air to react with.

You are right, I completely misunderstood how Lithium-air batteries work.

Cynicism aside, I wouldn't bet against lithium-air. It will be a game-changer.

But will it beat Fusion power to market? :-)

In a more serious tone, there are lots of positive changes like this which are inexorably working their way into production. And I agree with you it will be pretty interesting when your phone lasts for a week or more, with heavy use, on a single charge.

How many times in the past few years have we heard about "new battery technology" that was coming soon and would revolutionize the industry? Too many, and none of them ever seem to come to fruition.

Almost anytime that a technology is said to be a decade away or more from the researcher, you may as well take it to mean that it will never happen.

So I'll be bald for a while then...

True. The rate between success in the lab and successful commercial product are generally at 3%.

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