Samsung’s Latest Battery Claim is Put to the Test

There’s no question that all major cell phone companies have been working on building longer lasting batteries for years, and Samsung is no exception. According to an article called Does Science Back Samsung’s 80% Battery Boost Claim, Samsung says they’ve made an incredible innovation in this industry. But is it true? Let’s take a look.

First up, let’s consider their claim: they claim they’ve made a development that could keep phones charged for 80% longer. Scientists have been skeptical, wondering how a new battery could really be that much better. After reviewing the science behind these batteries, scientists have said that the researched pointed to by Samsung didn’t take into account energy that’s permanently lost once the battery goes through its first, initial charge.

In fact, according to the article, inventor of the lithium-ion battery, John B. Goodenough, who is also a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Texas, says this isn’t breakthrough technology at all.

But let’s backup a step. The current lithium-ion batteries on the market create power by using lithium cobalt oxide as the cathode (also known as the positive terminal) in conjunction with carbon, which is generally in the form of graphite, as the anode (or negative terminal). A lithium polymer compound is generally used as the electrolyte.

With this setup, when you hook up a battery to a current load like a light bulb or computer, the lithium ions move from the anode to the cathode and then through the electrolyte. The result? Power is generated!

However, as the article says, "silicon is denser than graphite, and so can hold more charge in the anode. The problem is silicon expands and contracts as it is charged and discharged in a battery. Such shape-shifting would cause defects in the silicon and reduce its charging capacity. Also, because of this expansion, silicon-based batteries can’t be squeezed into slim devices.”

And that’s where the "new” technology comes in: Samsung believes they’ve come up with a solution. They coated the silicon in graphene with the idea that this single-atom-thick graphene layer could surround the silicon and when expansion occurred, the layers would slide around each other. As a result, the silicon could get bigger without cracking the carbon. This is something graphite can’t do, because its non-single-atom layer doesn’t coat nanoparticles in the same way. In short: it would crack.

Is Samsung’s new method really a game changer? Only time – and science! – will tell. One thing’s for sure: Battery Bob is here to meet all your battery needs from barcode scanner batteries to camcorder batteries.