New battery lasts 40% longer

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09 Oct 08 15:37 by Timmie in category Uncategorized To news archive

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A company called ZPower designed new silver-zinc based batteries which are claimed to last 40% longer per charge than current lithium-ion batteries. Whether their claim can be justified can be tested in 2009. ZPower promised to introduce a new laptop then.

Currently the beach town of Nice in France is under the spell of Batteries 2008, an exhibition focused on power supply. ZPower’s CEO, Ross Dueber, will discuss the technology in Nice as we speak (write).

Silver-zinc batteries were used by NASA’s Apollo spacecraft in the sixties and seventies, explains Physorg.com. For years the technology stopped working after being recharged only a few times. Dueber is expected to explain the technology’s improvements.

Of course we can expect that silver-zinc batteries will have a longer lifetime in the 21st century. "The biggest advantage is the batteries’ longer lifetime," writes Lise Zyga, editor at Physorg.com.

Besides having a longer life due to special polymers, silver-zinc batteries are also safer than lithium-ion batteries. Silver-zinc batteries are water-based and therefore shouldn’t burst into flames when heated.

If all the above is true we can be even more happy with the fact that silver-zinc batteries are very easy to recycle. A real downside though is that silver-zinc batteries aren’t interchangeable with the lithium-ion ones. This means that manufacturers will have to adjust to the new format. Will they do this?

13 Comments

hocus1: Posts: 12; Posted on: 09 Oct 08 16:31

I hope they have these soon (silver-zinc batteries) for cordless phones, we have payed more for the other type of batters than we payed for rhe phone. silver-zinc batteries

guest: Posts: 15288; Posted on: 09 Oct 08 17:18

Note that although they do last 40% longer, they also weigh 40% more. That is they have a greater density than Lithium batteries. So they are better for space limited applications, but not weight limited ones.

Grrrrl: Posts: 27; Posted on: 09 Oct 08 19:22

So they are also 40% larger? Then they are also 40% larger, no? I don't think we'll ever see them then!

guest: Posts: 15288; Posted on: 09 Oct 08 21:37

No, they're not 40% larger.

CJF1983: Posts: 80; Posted on: 10 Oct 08 00:18

Can't wait to test these out..

ferd: Posts: 243; Posted on: 10 Oct 08 00:25

The article at pysorg.com says they operate at a different voltage? How could this be? The voltage ought to be adjustable by varying the amount of material in the battery. I looked at Zpower's website and read some of the articles referenced there. None of them mentioned any issues about any "voltage differences". This sounds bogus to me.

heffeque: Posts: 169; Posted on: 10 Oct 08 00:38

You should learn how to READ. They are NOT 40% larger, they are 40% heavier. Large isn't equal to heavy. A big mountain of feathers heighs less than a small mountain of stone for example. People usually learn that kind of things when they're 4 or maybe 5 years old.

guest: Posts: 15288; Posted on: 11 Oct 08 03:18

The voltage is dependent of the materials inside the battery. The amount of they change the capacity.

CJF1983: Posts: 80; Posted on: 11 Oct 08 08:49

Women could grow to love these lol i'm sorry I had to go there haha.

applegodel8: Posts: 151; Posted on: 11 Oct 08 11:05

what about the men?

CJF1983: Posts: 80; Posted on: 11 Oct 08 19:18

http://www.cdfreaks.com/jochem/../im...lies/6/eek.gif
Umm yeah if there is anything out there that would run on these bad boys lol sure why not I wonder what Duke would have to say about all this? lol

DukeNukem: Posts: 998; Posted on: 14 Oct 08 03:30

Well, since someone finally decided to ask me (I've been waiting patiently), I'm glad to hear that the batteries won't burst into flames when heated. The reason I'm glad is that if these batteries go into my next PMP, and I'm holding it, I don't want the heat from my hands (the ladies tell me I have hot hands) to ignite the batteries and have the thing melt my face. That's bad. Kind of like when the guy opened the tomb in the first The Mummy movie and the salt acid burned his face off. Does this bother me? Absolutely not. He was warned not to open the tomb, but he did it anyway. You know who should have their face melted off, though? The guy who wrote the script for The Mummy 3. What a POS.

Anyway, I think these batteries are a solid idea. I'll give up weight for increased battery life. Who knows? Maybe, in time, they can get the weight down a bit. Isn't science great?

CJF1983: Posts: 80; Posted on: 17 Oct 08 11:53

Yes science is kick ass!

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