Nice, when can we use them for phones and laptops lasting 72% longer and without fire risk?
Genuine question, because optimistic battery articles have been popping up for decades, but here we are still with lithium ion in practice.
Genuine question, because optimistic battery articles have been popping up for decades, but here we are still with lithium ion in practice.
Lithium ion batteries are actually amazing tech. I certainly remember the world without them; laptops had an hour of battery life, mobile phones were "car phones", everyone was running around paranoid about the "memory effect", and electric cars were an interesting curiosity always ten years away. Here we are today with pocket computers that last for days and electric cars buzzing around the city. In 30 years, some of this new tech we read about will be widely adopted, but in the meantime, it's not like things are that bad.
I think that electric airplanes will be the thing that new battery technology unlocks.
If there are existing manufacturing processes that can be leveraged to build cells with this chemistry—and do so economically—then commercialization could happen very rapidly.
Otherwise, it's likely to be filled away until future manufacturing technology comes along, which may be "too late" if even better or more economical options exist at that point.
The 'Lithium ion' from 10 years ago is very different from it now. 'Lithium ion' is an umbrella term that contains lots of things. Just as 'solid state' is not really what anybody is talking about. What actually matters about 'solid state' is lithium metal anodes. There are also companies who are doing lithium metal anodes without being solid state.
If 'solid state' ever make it into the market, they will just be the new 'Lithium ion'.
So basically, if I wanted the freedom to have occasional heavy-usage days, I would have to buy a larger, heavier phone.