国产吃瓜黑料

Mankind has a battery problem. Our processors, memory, and sensors have evolved at an increasingly聽rapid pace, but just as we become more reliant on these technological marvels, their stupid batteries go and ruin all our futuristic fun. After all, a device鈥檚 advanced capabilities don鈥檛聽matter if you can鈥檛 turn it on.聽

It seems like every other week, we hear about a new type of battery that鈥檚聽invariably just around the corner and will bring our screens out of darkness. Most recently, it was . It sounds good and all, but damn it, I鈥檝e been hurt before. Recently, we鈥檝e been promised everything from聽 to .

Today, most of the rechargeable batteries in our tech鈥攆rom smartphones and smartwatches to Tesla鈥檚 Model S鈥攁re powered by lithium-ion batteries, first introduced by Sony in 1991. While this technology is miles ahead of what we had a couple decades ago, it still leaves much to be desired. For starters, Li-ion batteries are slow to charge. The other major problem:聽These batteries聽don鈥檛 hold enough power for our daily needs even when they鈥檙e brand new, and they hold less and less as they age. Also, they sometimes 鈥攚hich is bad.聽

We need something better. Thousands of are scientists working to create a battery that solves all our problems. The only issue? So far, it鈥檚 all vaporware. 聽

Some groups are trying to make Li-ion batteries better. When lithium ions move through the battery, they cause tiny imperfections in the electrodes鈥� structure, which can diminish capacity and increase the risk of shorts鈥攚hich could produce fires. One solution: so shorts can鈥檛 form, according to researchers at the University of Michigan.聽

Washington University researchers have another idea: Instead of using a liquid electrolyte, which is prone to leaking and then causing fires, what if that wouldn鈥檛 drip? Stanford wants to go with that fixes itself as soon as it breaks. Or we could follow Sharp and Kyoto University and replace the traditional cathode with one made of , which would theoretically allow for a laptop battery that could maintain 80 percent of its original charge after a whopping 10,000 charging cycles (compared to 300 cycles of present-day Li-ion batteries). Or, we could try , again from Stanford, which could extend battery life between two and four times as long.

Then there are the researchers looking beyond lithium.聽Did you know that silicon can store up to ten times as much energy as lithium? Imagine your phone lasting for ten days on a single charge. But silicon swells to three聽times its original聽size when fully charged, so some scientists are working to聽divide the battery into . Maybe Harvard is right and we鈥檒l be using . Perhaps we鈥檒l finally have a good use for all the sulfur waste we produce in聽oil refining聽and will become a reality. The next generation of swallowable monitoring devices could be powered by Carnegie Mellon鈥檚 edible battery made from聽. What about a temporary-tattoo-like battery that鈥檚 ? Or a small聽piezoelectric zinc oxide battery that鈥檚 ?听

Finally, the new聽battery du jour:聽. It promises to be charge super fast. It promises to hardly deteriorate. 聽It promises to be cheap. It promises to not聽catch on fire. It sounds great. Except that it鈥檚 currently capable of producing only two聽volts of electricity, which is way behind Li-ion聽or even a nine-volt battery. In other words, you鈥檙e not going to be running a phone with聽it anytime soon.

Every one of these聽16 battery solutions聽emerged in the past two years alone, which is impressive. The problem? While they all sound great, each has a flaw or two that has聽kept it off the market.聽

鈥淢ost of the 鈥榖reakthroughs鈥� that we read about from university, government, and private labs have unspoken or understated caveats, flaws, or inferiorities,鈥� says Steve Levine, author of the new book聽. 鈥淭he bar for a super-battery for electric cars is very high on multiple plains; you can achieve superiority in one aspect聽and remain frustratingly distant from getting there on the others. These required dimensions include how far a battery will take a car on a single charge, how much it costs, and how fast it can allow a car to accelerate. So it is in the case of the Stanford aluminum battery, which has relatively low capacity and voltage, notwithstanding its impressiveness on other fronts.鈥�

Help may be on the way, though, and it鈥檚 coming聽from聽some of the biggest companies out there. Last week,聽聽and is聽joining the ranks of companies like Apple, Virgin, and, of course, Tesla, which is currently building its own battery 鈥済igafactory鈥� in Nevada. 鈥淕oogle聽is聽impatient with the pace of advancement by battery companies and laboratories聽and have decided to try to聽accelerate innovation and invention by, in part, directing scientists to meet their particular needs,鈥� Levine told 国产吃瓜黑料. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not the money that has been a missing ingredient, but commercial and competitive discipline and urgency. Now these elements are there.鈥�

So what鈥檚 the verdict? A lot of exciting ideas are out there, but most are stuck at the prototype phase and won鈥檛 benefit聽consumers for a聽while (if ever). But because battery life is such a huge problem for consumers, many of the leading tech companies have a vested interest in solving it, and they鈥檙e on the case. Hopefully this intersection of independent and corporate research will create a perfect storm that will bring some of these breakthroughs to market. Until then,聽I鈥檓 afraid you鈥檒l be keeping that extra charging cable in your jacket pocket, just in case.