Lithium-silicon smartphone batteries explained – PhoneArena،
We are living in a golden age, there is no doubt about it. Our electronic gadgets can do a lot for us: help us communicate, navigate, learn, have fun, translate things for us, take photos and videos, and much more. There is, however, one key area that has remained almost frozen in time over the past 50 years. Batteries. All our portable electronic devices turn into useless paperweights when their batteries run out. In this article, we will talk about the latest technology that improves lithium-ion batteries and increases their capacity. Lithium-silicone batteries. But first.
What is a battery?
Simply put, a battery is a device that stores and delivers electricity using electrochemical reactions. There are three main components in a battery:
- Anode: The electrode where oxidation (loss of electrons) takes place during discharge. Common materials for anodes include graphite or metals.
- Cathode: The electrode where reduction (electron gain) occurs during discharge. Cathode materials vary and can include metals like lithium, cobalt, or manganese, depending on the battery type.
- Electrolyte: Substance that allows ions to move between the anode and cathode, thus facilitating the flow of electric current. The electrolyte is usually a liquid or gel containing ions.
When you connect an external device that requires power to the battery circuit, charged ions begin to flow from the anode to the cathode through the electrolyte. This creates a potential difference and the electrons then move from the battery to your connected gadget, providing energy.
Lithium-ion batteries
In lithium-ion batteries, the cathode is usually made of a lithium metal oxide, such as lithium cobalt oxide or lithium iron phosphate. The anode is made of some type of carbon, such as graphite, and the electrolyte is a lithium salt. So what's the problem with silicon?
Lithium-silicon batteries
Silicon nanowires
Lithium-silicon batteries use a small modification to the anode that results in a substantial improvement in capacity. Graphite has an upper capacity limit of 372 mAh/g. In contrast, pure crystalline silicone has a theoretical capacity of 3,600 mAh/g, approximately ten times that of graphite.
So where are our 50,000 mAh smartphone batteries? Well, pure silicon crystals have the nasty property of changing their volume when charged and discharged, up to 300%. This means the battery will swell, break and catch fire or explode.
To avoid this while still enjoying some of the benefits of silicon, scientists created a silicon-carbon composite material. It uses silicon nanoparticles to increase the capacity of the graphene anode. Currently, commercial silicon-carbon batteries have a capacity of approximately 550 mAh/g. Tesla uses this technology in its car batteries, and Honor also uses it in the Honor Magic 5 Pro, the Magic V2 foldable, and the upcoming Magic 6 Pro.
And after?
Solid or lithium-silicon?
Let's get one thing straight. Lithium-silicon batteries are not solid-state batteries. You may have heard a lot about the latter, with promises of increased capacity and super-fast charging. This type of battery deserves a separate article, and indeed the potential is enormous but there are difficulties to overcome, and they are also enormous.
Is there a future for lithium-silicon-carbon batteries? Absolutely! Expect more smartphone makers to try to facilitate this technology. The most important factor here is that the materials and processes used to create such batteries are not radically different from conventional lithium-ion batteries. And that means scalability and commercially acceptable cost.
As they currently stand, lithium-silicon batteries offer a modest 20% capacity increase, but advances in this technology could increase that figure tenfold. So 10,000 mAh iPhones and Galaxies may not be that far away.
