Making Safer Lithium-Ion Batteries

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

[SomeJoel]

"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

[russlar]

dude... you're harshing my buzz... and I've already got my laptop's battery in pieces....

Re:Nothing to do with iPhones

[Rogerborg]

Preach it, bro'. They don't explode because they're full of shitty batteries, they explode because they're full of extreme awesomeness.

Re:Nothing to do with iPhones

[PPH]

...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

[Tumbleweed]

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

[dunkelfalke]

Can't be, because there is no charge for awesomeness [youtube.com].

Re:Half the fun is in the danger

[MillionthMonkey]

Yeah but most meth cooks are also high school chemistry teachers. You do your cooking on the side and keep your reagents at work with the kids.

Re:Hot or Not?

[Anonymous Coward]

No worries. These new, Safer Li-ion batteries will implode instead.

Re:Step 1

[LordSnooty]

Built-in obsolesence is being replaced by built-in short life.

Is that the "short life" of the battery, or the "short life" of the person who had the battery explode in their pocket?