Making Safer Lithium-Ion Batteries 77
itwbennett writes "Exploding iPhones may be a thing of the past. Researchers at Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute have developed a new polymer, STOBA (that's self-terminated oligomers with hyper-branched architecture to you and me), that is added to the cathode material inside a lithium-ion battery to keep them from overheating. 'Fires or explosions in these batteries are caused by short circuits,' said Wu Hung-chun, a researcher at ITRI, explaining that even minor mishandling such as dropping the handset could result in damage causing a short circuit. 'The technology is ready for lithium-ion batteries used in electronic devices, mobile phones, laptops,' said Wu. And ITRI has started testing STOBA on electric car batteries."
Re:Been there done that (Score:4, Funny)
"Horse and buggies may now be a thing of the past due to the new honda civic comeing out this year"
You got that right! I'm finally ready to trade in ol' Bessie.
Re:Half the fun is in the danger (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Nothing to do with iPhones (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Nothing to do with iPhones (Score:5, Funny)
...they're full of extreme awesomeness.
And when that comes into contact with the anti-particle of awesomeness, the average iPhone user, they annihilate each other, releasing enormous amounts of energy.
Re:Not about energy density (Score:3, Funny)
I'll post this preemptively since usually when battery fires are discussed some people insist this is unavoidable if you want a high energy density
Too late. You posted emptively.
Re:Nothing to do with iPhones (Score:4, Funny)
Can't be, because there is no charge for awesomeness [youtube.com].
Re:Half the fun is in the danger (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Hot or Not? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Step 1 (Score:3, Funny)
Is that the "short life" of the battery, or the "short life" of the person who had the battery explode in their pocket?