Appliance developer Dyson has teamed up with a University of Michigan startup to bring vastly more effective batteries to the mass market, according to an article by Samuel Gibbs in the Guardian. The technology comes by way of an eight-year-old company called Sakti3, and is said to allow the development of batteries that have twice the storage capacity of standard batteries.
That’s because Sakti3’s batteries use solid-state technology using lithium electrodes, unlike the standard mix of liquid chemicals powering standard lithium-ion batteries. Sakti3 says its batteries have the storage capacity of 1000 watt hours per litre, whereas even the best lithium-ion batteries can only offer 620 watt hours per litre. Moreover, the new batteries are supposed to be cheaper to make, more environmentally-friendly, and longer-lasting.
It’s great news the nascent electric car industry and the renewable energy sector, and will also be a great boon for smartphone makers. While mobile device technology has advanced by leaps and bounds, the technology underlying the batteries that power such devices has barely changed for the last couple of decades, and smartphone makers have been keen to explore solutions and alternatives in order to free up valuable space in their devices that is otherwise taken up by battery bulk. Together with advancing mobile operating systems designed to optimize battery usage, Sakti3’s new technology could vastly improve the battery life in a range of forthcoming devices.
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