Introduction
Since the emergence of smartphones about eight years ago, there has been a consistent improvement in many aspects of the revolutionary mobile device. The screens are becoming larger, performance is becoming faster to the extent that some people now no longer need a PC or laptop, and new features and capabilities are being added at the launch of every new device.
However, there has been one stumbling block with regard to the progress made in the smartphone market. Up to this day, progress on battery life has been almost insignificant. Instead of the battery getting smaller as everyone would expect from the point of view of advanced technology, the battery has gotten bigger, despite the cell phones becoming thinner.
Batteries are eating most of the space meant for the cell phone hardware, and it is only a matter of time before this became an issue for smartphone manufacturers, because soon they won’t be able to make the enhancements they would prefer due to constraints brought by the battery.
What’s the big challenge?
Cellphone batteries are made from a combination two electrodes; one made of lithium and the other carbon. Obviously, these batteries come in different shapes and sizes, but the bottom line remains that the number of hours a battery remains in use remains key. This is because according to research, the lithium-ion battery performance is based on ion movement between the two electrodes.
This movement is known as cycling and thus, a battery can only make so many cycles in its lifetime. As the battery ages, the performance also dwindles due to the temperature resulting from the cycling movement of ions between the negative and the positive electrodes.
This is a major challenge to cellphone battery manufacturers, but recent study indicates that a battery made from a combination of lithium and nickel could possibly maintain high performance until it dies. The challenge of the current materials (cathode or anode) used in developing lithium-ion batteries is that they are not capable of holding large amounts of charge in a given volume, and hence developers have been trying to improve these materials in a bid to increasing energy capacity.
However, according to research, nickel is capable of holding up to 10x more energy in a given volume than a cathode or anode material, but it also has its own challenge. Nickel material tends to expand when receiving lithium-ions during charging, and then it shrinks when releasing lithium-ions when discharging. This leads to pulverization and fracturing of the anode, which results to shortening of the life of the battery.
The rechargeable battery industry seems to have stalled over the last few years as companies near the peak level at which they can expand energy storage per given volume. As such some are looking for new ways of remaining competitive in the market. One of the leading manufacturers of lithium-ion batteries is Spectrum Brands Holdings Inc (NYSE:SPB).
The company recently completed the acquisition of Armored AutoGroup from Avista Capital partners for a whopping $1.4 billion. Armored AutoGroup focuses on empowering consumers to do some basic auto-care aftermarket services themselves by using some of the company’s branded products and accessories.
In December last year, Rayovac, a division of spectrum brands introduced a cellphone charger that allows consumers to charge their smartphones from anywhere in the world. This indicates the struggle in developing smartphone batteries that can hold power for long periods without running out.
It is quite clear that there is little development towards enhancing energy capacity per given volume and this can be demonstrated by the fact that Spectrum Brands has been working on secondary energy storage devices rather than improving the primary power supply for smartphones in the recent past. In 2013, the company, through Rayovac, introduced portable chargersthat could hold 7 hours of reusable power and a 2 hour talk time boost. Again, the focus here is on adding more secondary storage materials to your luggage, rather than limiting power storage to one device.
What is the solution?
Early this year, another major player in the battery industry Energizer Holdings Inc (NYSE:ENR) introduced a thinner and much more powerful battery during the CES (consumer Electronics Show), held in Las Vegas. According to the report, the Energizer(R) Zinc Air Prismatic battery will offer OEMs greater design flexibility, while providing greater run times or enabling smaller devices.
This lines up pretty well with technology trends. Jon Eager, Energizer Director for OEM Marketing at Energizer said, “We have been working with our OEM partners for several years to refine this battery technology for use in a variety of portable consumer electronic devices and in the coming year we will start production."
Based on those comments, it appears as though if indeed companies want to manufacture smaller, but yet powerful batteries then they will have to focus on altering technologies used rather than trying to increase energy capacity on existing technologies. This means that the options are varied and we could see a whole lot of innovative batteries in the near future.
One such company that seems set to launch us into a new paradigm shift in innovative battery tech is Mphase Techs Inc (OTC:XDSL), a tech company focusing on innovative battery technologies that enable it to deliver small devices with massive energy/power capabilities.
For instance, one of the company’s products currently shipping pre-orders is the mPower Truck Jump. This is a powerful and compact jumpstarter that can be used to prevent downtime and costs associated with an off the road and stranded truck with a dead battery. The jumpstarter stands at only 9 inches tall and weighs less than 4 pounds. Despite being a fraction of the size and weight of related products, the mPower Truck Jump incredibly reaches 1000A for 12V and 500A for 24V battery voltage systems.
This is just an illustration by using one of the company’s products. However, mPhase Technologies is looking to innovate on all spheres of the power industry and will soon be challenging Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) in the battle to providing backup power for homes.
Tesla recently announced plans to introduce a battery for every home as it seeks to harness the power of the sun and wind in its campaign to a green planet. Green energy does in many respects appear to be the future in the energy sector, and this explains why many companies are coming up with innovative ways to participate in this market.
With regard to home power backup, mPhase recently demonstrated the mPower home generator displayed at the NAFA show in April, and is continuing with the development of a new home battery generator for emergency backup applications.
However, what intrigues me the most is the company’s continuing pursuit of it’s nanobattery technologies which received the innovation award from Frost &Sullivan Global Research in 2013 North American Advanced Battery Innovation Awards.
Frost and Sullivan noted that one of the unique attributes of mPhase Technologies’ nanobattery is that the electrode and the electrolyte are separated by a membrane that is super-hydrophobic in nature, and also electrodes inside the battery are divided into cells.
This prevents the loss of active material during storage and helps in reducing the toxicity of the electrolyte solution thereby prolonging the life of the battery. mPhase technologies believes that its nanobattery can be applied in a cross-section of industries including defense, energy, electronics, health, and transportation among others.
Frost & Sullivan also expressed optimism towards mPhase Technologies’ nanobattery pointing out that it has the capability to address the challenges facing current barriers such as Ni- cadmium (Cd), Ni-zinc (Zn), lithium (Li)-ion batteries, among others.
The market is hungry for better batteries
The global battery market is expected to hit $132 billion next year and companies are battling to take their share by introducing products that they believe will add value to customers.
Now in adding value, lifespan of a battery has to be a major factor, as is the energy per given volume. As such, mPhase with its current product offerings and nanobattery technology development seems well set with regard to customer expectations.
The industry is diverse, and seems to be ever growing. Over the last few years, we have seen more products come in such as EV (electronic vehicle) batteries, and now, Tesla and mPhase are talking of home batteries.
This means that most of the items that currently run on electricity and other forms of power could soon rely very much on innovative backup batteries for secondary power, which means that the industry can only get bigger.
Additionally, more products are being introduced and now we are also seeing surgical products that are using batteries which again widen the market for nanobattery tech.
Conclusion
The bottom line is that given the recent advances in technology, the battery industry seems to have stalled significantly compared to other areas of technologies that go hand in hand with it. If not improved, the battery industry could end up slowing other areas of technologies that rely on improved batteries to advance further.
However, given recent developments as demonstrated by Energizer, Tesla and mPhase Technologies, it appears that it won’t be long before we finally break the barrier and move to the next phase in battery tech. This industry is becoming more interesting by the day.