If we think about it, the number of devices that we use daily that use lithium batteries is outrageous and worst of all, the demand for this material is going to grow in the coming years due to the stubbornness of politicians when it comes to forcing yes or yes the electric car. In the world of computer hardware they are essential for laptops to function. Well, the next step seems to be that they will be the air-lithium batteries.
We all would like our laptop to last more hours on each charge or that its battery could deliver more power. Unfortunately, the size of the batteries together with the chemistry limitations of lithium ion is what means that you cannot go further. To all this we must add the enormous amount that ends up in the trash, being a growing pollution problem. That is why alternatives to the classic batteries of a lifetime are being developed, one of the most researched in recent years being those based on lithium peroxide.
What are lithium air batteries?
It is a type of battery recently developed by the Illinois Institute of Technology and is based on lithium peroxide or Li2O and has the capacity to deliver four times the power per volume of current rechargeable batteries. All this thanks to the use of a mechanical polyethylene electrolyte.
Translated into a more common language, this means that you can either get equally large batteries with a life per charge four times longer or failing that, make the battery only occupy 25%. In other words, less dependence on a commodity as precious and scarce as lithium is becoming.
Although this would not be the only important advantage of these batteries, they also promise to have a very long life, since they only lose 5% of the total charge capacity after 1000 recharges. Which is a really noteworthy figure that will make the products that use it have a long life.
It does not stop being a promise for the moment
There is currently no battery used in a commercial product that is based on this technology. Therefore, although its development promises to deliver better products to the real world, we cannot forget that planned obsolescence is one of the engines that make the hardware industry work.
The issue is not only converting research into a lithium-air battery in the real world, but if it does not have a series of associated products that use it, it will remain a simple promise.
On the other hand, and finally, the ability to deliver a greater amount of energy translates into a greater ability to release energy when exploding. And let’s remember that it usually happens that batteries explode, at least one in every certain number, so we will have to see what the level of potential danger is in air-lithium batteries, lest it turn the devices into small portable bombs.
