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- Aug 20, 2006
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Is this another report of a revolutionary battery technology that we will never hear about again? I hope not, since this is the kind of breakthrough we may need to prevent incidents like the Samsung explosions. A professor has managed to create a battery that doesn’t house any electrolyte liquid, which essentially means that it won’t heat and blow up. Furthermore, his batteries use actual lithium metal, providing twice as much charge. Thanks to Kyle for this story.
What Zimmerman has done is pretty amazing: He’s created a battery that eliminates the liquid. In its place: A special plastic film, solid and not flammable. Yet it allows the free flow of the ions, just as the electrolyte does. Zimmerman’s plastic doesn’t catch fire even if you try to light it with a grill lighter. Zimmerman even encouraged me to cut the live battery. Into shreds. Down to nothing. No fire, no heat, no trip to the emergency room. And the LED light panel it was driving stayed turned on. This is, in other words, a completely safe battery. But wait, it gets better. We call them lithium ion batteries because they do not, in fact, use actual lithium metal. That’s too bad, because lithium metal batteries can store at least twice as much power! The only reason we don’t use lithium-metal batteries is that they’re even more dangerous than lithium ion. But if there’s no flammable liquid, there’s no risk of fire. So Zimmerman’s batteries do use actual lithium metal, and therefore hold twice as much charge.
What Zimmerman has done is pretty amazing: He’s created a battery that eliminates the liquid. In its place: A special plastic film, solid and not flammable. Yet it allows the free flow of the ions, just as the electrolyte does. Zimmerman’s plastic doesn’t catch fire even if you try to light it with a grill lighter. Zimmerman even encouraged me to cut the live battery. Into shreds. Down to nothing. No fire, no heat, no trip to the emergency room. And the LED light panel it was driving stayed turned on. This is, in other words, a completely safe battery. But wait, it gets better. We call them lithium ion batteries because they do not, in fact, use actual lithium metal. That’s too bad, because lithium metal batteries can store at least twice as much power! The only reason we don’t use lithium-metal batteries is that they’re even more dangerous than lithium ion. But if there’s no flammable liquid, there’s no risk of fire. So Zimmerman’s batteries do use actual lithium metal, and therefore hold twice as much charge.