Paper thin battery

[Malacasta]

OMG, how cool is this?

US researchers say they have invented a lightweight paper battery that could serve as an enhanced power storage device for the next generation of consumer electronic devices.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/techno...857468350.html

[Rosuav]

That is neat. Not only is it another feat of miniaturisation for batteries, it also (at least, seems this way to me) makes it easier to make batteries in weird shapes. For instance, a mobile phone could have a "sheet" of battery covering the whole inside back of the case, which could improve the balance and lightness factors.

I found this fascinating: "You can stack one sheet on top of another to boost the power output..." So remind me - what's the word "battery" mean?

"The device can function in temperatures of 300 degrees Fahrenheit and down to 100 below zero..." - WOW. Just wow. If it can maintain full storage capacity at that range of operating temperatures, that's doing pretty well.

Pretty impressive. Not all that unexpected, though, as advances like this do keep happening; but, congrats to the researchers. This looks good.

[Aristotle]

About time?

Battery technology has been woefully ignored for far too long.

[Vidare]

Originally posted by Aristotle
About time?

Battery technology has been woefully ignored for far too long.

I have to agree with this. Batteries have been pretty much the same size for at least the last 24yrs, if not longer, as components for technology got smaller and smaller.

[Rijiny]

Originally posted by Vidare
I have to agree with this. Batteries have been pretty much the same size for at least the last 24yrs, if not longer, as components for technology got smaller and smaller.

Down with AAA, AA, C, D, and those stupid little watch batteries! *eyeshift*

[Rosuav]

Originally posted by Vidare
I have to agree with this. Batteries have been pretty much the same size for at least the last 24yrs, if not longer, as components for technology got smaller and smaller.

Yes and no. Batteries have improved some (slower than the devices they power), but on the other hand, today's device often needs less power than yesterday's did, so the same battery will serve it better.

[Aristotle]

Originally posted by Rosuav
Yes and no. Batteries have improved some (slower than the devices they power), but on the other hand, today's device often needs less power than yesterday's did, so the same battery will serve it better.

It seems like laptops have the same 2-4 hour battery life that they had 8+ years ago.

It seems to me that by now that number should be up to at least 12+ hours per charge.

While it is true that modern laptops use more power for their graphics cards and monitors, that increase is not terribly significant.

If batteries were improving like other technology (following Moore's Law as a minimum, a doubling every 24 months), then they should be 32 times more powerful than they were 8 years ago.

They aren't even close.

[Rosuav]

True. (Though laptops _are_ getting smaller, along with their batteries, but not all that much.) Moore's Law covers a few aspects of computers, or at least approximates to their growth rates, but significantly, not to others: memory and hard disk capacities keep growing rapidly; their access speeds lag somewhat. (Also: Number of users on the internet probably Moores (if that's a verb); their average cluefulness does not, as can be seen by the great number of stories of computing stupidity around the place ) Batteries get their occasional jumps, like this, and not all that much in between.

Actually, if you look at the mAh ratings on the batteries, you'll probably find that they've been increasing or at least steady, while the physical size has been shrinking. Maybe not at the rate of Moore's, but there has been improvement, and yet not in actual life.

Side point: Emirates have a brilliant service: You can charge your laptop battery on the plane. Yay! And that's not just in business class, either, I enjoyed the privilege in economy too. Now THAT is the way to extend battery life!!

[Kravenar]

Originally posted by Aristotle
If batteries were improving like other technology (following Moore's Law as a minimum, a doubling every 24 months), then they should be 32 times more powerful than they were 8 years ago.

As far as I understand batteries still use the principle of reactions in a "solution" between an anode and a cathode. Car batteries being the most common example of them.

Whilst technology and miniaturisation allow you to shrink everything else, I think you hit a wall when you still need X amount of solution to give battery sufficient life.

Different flavours NiMH / NiCad etc and other advances have made improvements on battery life, battery memory etc.. but you still need a certain amount of material to react.... I think that is where the stumbling block has been in making them any smaller.

This new gizmo looks cool..and even if it revolutionises WHERE batteries can fit it will make a big difference.(location/weight distribution). but the article doesn't really say how much power you can draw out of it. You can run a small fan... but will it stop after 30 secs, 5 minutes, an hour? How does performance drop off? Linear decline (crappy), or steady power for longer and then nothing (better).

I'd be interested in seeing stats battery power/life now if packaged in a battery of the same size as say 10 years ago (think of your mobile phone), not to mention comparitive power consumption of equivalent devices (are we squeezing more from less).

Of course... too lazy to google for it myself.

[Rosuav]

Originally posted by kravenar
Different flavours NiMH / NiCad etc and other advances have made improvements on battery life, battery memory etc.. but you still need a certain amount of material to react.... I think that is where the stumbling block has been in making them any smaller.

Side point: Most laptop batteries (others too but harder to generalize) are Li-ion. Lithium batteries are _less_ efficient (in terms of power output per size) than several other chemistries, but the advantage is weight. NiMH batteries are available for a number of models of laptop, so if you really need that bit more battery life, it might be a good option.