If there’s one smartphone technology that has stagnated over the last few years, it’s batteries. That’s not to say that there haven’t been amazing improvements to batteries recently – fast charging batteries are very cool – but battery capacity in particular has barely improved. In fact, battery capacities in general over only increased (on average) by about 500-600mAh, which is tiny when you consider that most devices increase battery size with each yearly revision anyway. So it’s fallen on a new Samsung battery technology to possibly revitalize this research area.
Their research is currently being undertaken at Samsung’s Advanced Institute of Technology and Energy Material Lab in Korea and according to a paper published just last week, might have discovered a way to almost double current smartphone battery capacities by increasing energy density. In scientific terms, what Samsung’s team has managed to do is use a silicon coating which allows for graphene growth on the silicon nanoparticles of the battery without the presence of silicon carbide which would otherwise hinder the efficiency of the battery – if you want to read the full paper, you can check it out here.
If you’re sceptical as to whether this is actually going to become a thing, know that Samsung is in the process of patenting this technology, which makes it seems pretty genuine. Whether or not you understand the technical mumbo-jumbo, we can still be excited that Samsung is forging ahead with research that we could be seeing in our devices in the near future, whether it be bigger battery capacities or even thinner devices.
What do you think of Samsung’s new battery technology? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Source: Nature via International Business Times
