Lithium Ion is the current industry standard when it comes to portable power sources, and it’s been doing a good job so far. The world is enjoying the idea of having the services of cellphones, portable media players, digital cameras, and other devices at their beck and call. But like all industry standards, everything gets replaced down the line.
Zinc-air batteries have been seen to replace Lithium Ion as the industry standard for mobile device batteries, and SINTEF (a Norwegian company) may have a working prototype ready in a year or less. Zinc-air batteries will supposedly have three times the energy capacity of equivalent Lithium Ion counterparts, and sport a much smaller form factor, enabling use in tiny devices such as hearing aids.
Zinc-air batteries may eventually roll out to be used in other devices, such as power-hungry smartphones, laptops, and even cars. The only major hurdle to be worked out is its charging cycle — after only 100 charges, zinc-air batteries seem to begin showing signs of age. To match up with its Lithium Ion counterparts, it’ll have to reach 500 charge cycles easily.
It’s good to see technology marching on, and it’ll be interesting to see whether zinc-air batteries may finally open the door to the mass production of electric cars.
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