Samsung Researchers Find a Way to Double Lithium Ion Battery Capacity

Smartphones have come a long way in the past few years, amazing us with new breakthroughs almost every year. Batteries are one of the components that seem to have not improved much. If you want a bigger battery, either you compromise over the price or the size/thickness of the device.




The new coating method for the cathodes of the batteries will help overcome the cycling performance and storage limitations forced by the current technology. The new material used is Graphene, which is an excellent conductor and is plastered on top of common silicon coating without the formation of any silicon carbide. The idea is indeed similar to what several other research groups around the world are trying to accomplish using the same material but with a different implementation.

Samsung researchers claim that the new technology will allow a full cell to reach energy densities of 972 Wh/l at first charge cycle and 700 Wh/l at 200th charge cycle when paired with any commercial lithium cobalt oxide cathode. This is around 1.5 to 1.8 times greater than the commercial lithium ion batteries’ original capacity. In other words, this technology increases battery capacity by about two times within the same size.