The discovery of a new material for the construction of lithium batteries could put an end to the problem of their limited life time and that is that BP Copolymer is a material with which its creators hope to triple the life of batteries of this type, so used today in many of our daily products.
That the rechargeable batteries in our laptops, wireless peripherals, and mobile phones wear down over time to the point where they end their useful life and can’t be used anymore. What would happen if we told you that a new material allows us to maintain the capacity of lithium-ion batteries at 100% for 5 years? Well, this material exists.
What is BP copolymer?
Under an apparently complicated name worthy of a lovercraftian entity is a new type of material that could replace the polyvinylidene fluorinated in the construction of lithium ion batteries. The difference in performance lies in the fact that the current material used to store lithium in batteries tends to reduce its 65% charge capacity after an average of 500 recharge cycles. Which makes it reach the point where the battery life of our laptop is getting lower and lower. This is fatal for gaming laptops or used as workstations due to their high performance, since by losing battery capacity they also lose portability.
The planned obsolescence of many products is also a problem. Due to the fact that its batteries die before the rest of the components do. Well, the Japanese institute of science and technology has managed to build the BP copolymer whose acronym stands for bis-imino-acenaphthenequinone-paraphenylene and what does it have the ability to maintain 95% of the charge in 1700 recharge cycles. Which means that the products could last up to 5 years without the battery dying permanently.
An answer to the shortage of materials?
Obsolescence is one of the things that makes production lines work. If the products are too good then people don’t buy, stores don’t sell, and factories don’t produce. So it is part of our economic system. Manufacturers expect that within a certain time you will replace your newly purchased product with a new one. Although it is true that the BP copolymer will make our lithium battery products last much longer, it will also lengthen the renewal or update cycles of the products.
However, the problem of the scarcity of materials used for the construction of devices such as mobile phones, laptops, etc. It could be a force forcing manufacturers to switch to batteries with a much longer lifespan. Although the market where this has the most potential is that of electric cars as a result of climate change.
As a final note, the construction of batteries is highly polluting, so if this reduces this problem, then it is welcome. Unfortunately, at the PC hardware level, the use of BP copolymer can mean an increase in prices. Of course, the shortage of materials in combination with recent geopolitical phenomena has reduced production capacity on many fronts. Are we headed for a world where our portable hardware will once again be as expensive as it once was?
