Goodbye Lithium-ion, hello silver zinc

Darius Chang | Aug 22, 2008

Even the prettiest and most expensive electronics device is junk if it runs out of juice. Laptop battery life has always been one of the key considerations whenever a new chipset or technology comes about. But despite yearly platform refreshes, there is one component which had not seen much, if any, change since George Bush Senior was the US President. We are talking about Lithium-ion batteries which have been used since 1991 when they were first introduced by Sony.

But even during the rise of Lithium-ion, another battery technology which is safer and longer-lasting was already in use by aerospace and military industries. During an interview with Ross Duebar, CEO of ZPower at IDF 2008 in San Francisco, he made claims that silver zinc cells are the wave of the future. They can last 40 percent longer and, since this is a water-based technology, is a lot safer than Lithium-ion, with little chance of an explosive encounter. Moreover, the components in a silver zinc battery are recyclable and reusable.

If this technology is so great and has been in use for much longer than Lithium-ion, why did it take so long to reach the consumer market? Duebar said there were many challenges to overcome before it could be packaged and brought to the market. One of them was on how to increase the number of recharge cycles so the overall longevity of the cell was acceptable.

The first laptops with silver zinc batteries will be due in 2009, though no further details were given as to which vendor it might be. You can listen to the entire interview below.

Via CNET News.com

Filed under: Notebooks
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ferdiei

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ferdiei says...
with the ever increasing need for "juice" on every gadgetry, this sure is very welcome. i hope their product objectives comes into fruition after solving other challenges regarding lifecycle & miniaturization (along with the benefit as being recyclable), with its proven use in the military & aerospace.

Aug 22, 2008 20:13

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drivin98

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drivin98 says...
Perhaps silver-zinc hasn't been embraced because they have a much shorter cycle life. Silver zinc cycle life has been only marginally improved and that's the reason lithium ion is much much better tech.

Aug 22, 2008 23:55

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