London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Tuesday, Sep 30, 2025

How to make phone batteries that last longer

When Professor Akira Yoshino was developing a new battery technology in his laboratory in the early 1980s, he didn't think it would amount to much.

"At the time, we thought it mainly would be used in 8mm video cameras," he laughs.

He was well off the mark. These days you are never more than a few feet away from a lithium-ion battery, as they power mobile phones and all sorts of other electronics, from toothbrushes to electric scooters.

In recognition of that success, Prof Yoshino was awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

But despite improvements, even the most advanced lithium-ion batteries can only store a fraction of the power of a similar weight of petrol or jet fuel.

And that is curbing ambitions for even smaller and lighter devices - and more ambitious projects like electric powered aviation.


Solid progress

Batteries need to make progress, admits Prof Yoshino, but thankfully, "there's a lot of interesting approaches".

And "the solid state battery, I think, is a promising one," he says.

Solid state batteries can store 50% more energy than lithium-ion, says Douglas Campbell, chief executive of Solid Power, a Colorado university spin-off.

They are more stable as well. In lithium-ion batteries the gel inside, the electrolyte, can combust.

In 2016, Samsung recalled 2.5 million Galaxy Note 7 handsets after fires involving their lithium-ion batteries.

Solid state batteries replace that gel with less flammable solid polymers or ceramics.

But the batteries being developed by Mr Campbell's firm still require lithium in its metallic form and that's a problem because it is a hard metal to work with.

Another problem is that lithium metal isn't yet made on an industrial scale, so just getting enough could be difficult, according to Mr Campbell.

But despite those worries, solid state batteries have "had the breakthrough in basic research, and research and development for mass production techniques is progressing," says Prof Yoshino.

He thinks it could take another 10 years for solid state batteries to compete with lithium-ion in terms of price.


Eyes on the prize

The big prize in the market is batteries for electric cars.

The number of electric vehicles in the world will balloon to 125 million by 2030, the International Energy Agency forecasts.

Battery innovation is "pretty much driven by whatever's happening in the electric vehicle market", says Rory McCarthy, an analyst at energy research firm Wood Mackenzie.

Mr McCarthy says the challenge for solid state and other new technologies is to compete with lithium-ion plants, which are getting bigger and bigger, making their batteries cheaper.

It takes a new battery factory four to five years to get close to full capacity and 10 years to make its money back, he adds.


Watts ahead

Lithium-ion technology itself is not a dead end. "We're learning some new principles we haven't thought of before," says Prof Yoshino.

That includes the movement of lithium-ion inside batteries. "We thought we understood that," he adds.

But now scientists are having to revisit their understanding, since it "is not what we expected".

"Yes, it goes on and on it never ends", he laughs.

Gene Berdichevsky says that it's only lithium-ion batteries that can make a "meaningful" impact on batteries in the near future and spur the mass adoption of electric vehicles.

His California-based company, Sila Nanotechnologies, is developing lithium-ion batteries that can potentially deliver a 40% improvement in energy density.

They are doing that by by replacing the replacing graphite anodes (the part of the battery where the current flows in) with silicon.

"We need continued investment and innovation in lithium-ion batteries," he says.


Electric flight?

Better battery density could make big differences in the way we live.

Aeroplanes release 500 million tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere each year.

But with better batteries, aircraft can use cleaner power and that revolution is already underway.

This year's Paris air show saw a working all-electric prototype commercial aircraft, made by the Israeli start-up, Eviation.

US regional airline Cape Air has placed a double-digit order. Meanwhile Canada's Harbour Air said in March it aims to become the world's first all-electric airline.

With 30% of flights under 300 miles, short haul flight should be easy to electrify, says Los Angeles start-up Wright Electric.

And much denser batteries could also electrify big lorries that today rely on fossil fuels.

Meanwhile, for some better batteries could change their lives.

"I have an off-road chair with six wheels," says Curt Oswalt, a former US air force translator who uses a battery-powered wheelchair after a 2002 injury.

"My batteries first started acting up roughly two years ago," he says.

One night, unable to sleep, he went for a 01:00 stroll around his neighbourhood in the Texan countryside.

"My battery indicator went from reading three-quarters full to dead, in under three seconds," he says.

Stranded, he had to wait under a street light until 04:30, when a sheriff found him and helped him home.

A more recent battery failure has meant he's been unable to leave his house unassisted for nine days.

"So yes," he says, "looking forward to better batteries!"

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
Nvidia Pledges Up to $100 Billion Investment in OpenAI to Power Massive AI Data Center Build-Out
U.S. Signals ‘Large and Forceful’ Support for Argentina Amid Market Turmoil
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
Vietnam Faces Up to $25 Billion Export Loss as U.S. Tariffs Bite
Europe Signals Stronger Support for Taiwan at Major Taipei Defence Show
Indonesia Court Upholds Military Law Amid Concerns Over Expanded Civilian Role
Larry Ellison, Michael Dell and Rupert Murdoch Join Trump-Backed Bid to Take Over TikTok
Trump and Musk Reunite Publicly for First Time Since Fallout at Kirk Memorial
Vietnam Closes 86 Million Untouched Bank Accounts Over Biometric ID Rules
Explosive Email Shows Sarah Ferguson Begged Forgiveness from Jeffrey Epstein After Taking His Money
×