A recent study from the University of Oxford has revealed a critical new potential breakthrough for lithium-ion batteries. Through a system that better distributes key materials throughout the battery system, these non-scale adjustments reduce inefficiency, leading to faster charging and longer battery life. Though still early in the development cycle, this work demonstrates more real-world potential than most battery-related hype, with a patent already pending for the team’s technology.
What Could this Mean for Users?
The standout feature of this research, as noted by the Oxford study, was a reduction of internal ionic resistance by as much as 40%. Internal resistance is one of the key factors of battery performance. The lower the resistance of a battery, the better able the battery is to reliably deliver higher currents. Higher resistance means the battery struggles to deliver current. In these ways, the resistance of a battery is inversely related to the unit to store energy and deliver it without energy loss.
How many batteries might be affected by changes through this new tech is still unknown, and will likely be tied to a couple of key factors. The first is how cheap and simple the additions to the batteries are to implement. If they can be implemented efficiently with low cost, they might affect nearly every lithium-ion battery on the market. If their implementation is costly and requires more complicated processes, then it’s more likely that only premium batteries will include the newly upgraded tech.
Even if this newer technology becomes standardised, the effects felt by each user could vary wildly depending on the device and use case. On the extreme end of the spectrum, consider systems like electric vehicles. These rely on large banks of lithium-ion batteries, where storage capacity and charge time are a premium.
Benefits to increased charge times alone could be profound here, but they are difficult to quantify. Different vehicles have different battery capacities, and different charging units can vastly change the amount of time it takes to bring a vehicle from zero charge to full. A Tesla Model S at zero charge can go from empty to full in 30 minutes with the fastest chargers, for example. Will a 40% reduction in internal resistance make this charge time 40% faster? While some benefits might be seen, it’s unlikely to map on a 1:1 scale.
More ubiquitous use cases when relating to battery efficiency might be better demonstrated by smartphones. Variance could again prove a serious issue here, given how a phone is used. Consider if you’re the type of person who enjoys iGaming experiences like playing Slingo games online, as an example. Titles like Slingo Mine Frenzy and Diamond Rush Ultra Tap are already battery efficient, so the once-a-day charge most of us already stick by won’t change. On the other hand, apps like WhatsApp or YouTube are considerably more draining, where constant use could see serious benefits through the newer tech.
It’s too early yet to see how far the new technology from Oxford researchers could go, but it’s still an interesting development to watch. While the leaps forward are unlikely to equally target or affect every device and system, the benefits for select battery-dependent systems could be immense. If nothing else, the EV market might see a revolution, and for those of us looking for an upgrade, we’ll be keeping track of what comes next.
