A Polymer Lithium ion Battery is another type of battery that is used for electronic devices. It is heavier in weight than the polymer batteries. On the flip side it is cheaper in cost and has a longer charge than the lithium polymer battery. The reason that Ion batteries are heavier than that of polymer batteries is that the ion battery has metal in it to hold the electrodes needed for the power. Both the polymer and the ion batteries are rechargeable and can be used over and over. The lithium ion battery is growing more and more popular for the military, electric cars, and people involved in the aerospace industry. Constant research is improving the density of the energy, durability, cost and the overall safety of the battery.
Lithium-ion batteries have certainly been a boon to electronic devices, offering much longer run times than their alkaline counterparts. There is still room for improvement, however. Existing lithium batteries can short circuit, they don’t stand up to damage, and they can only be made in a limited variety of shapes. Now, scientists have recently developed a polymer gel that could be used to make lifepo4 batteries with none of those shortcomings, and they should be cheaper.
Traditional lithium-ion batteries consist of sealed cells that each contains a porous polymer film separator and a liquid chemical electrolyte. The pores in that separator allow charged lithium ions to flow between the electrodes, while acting as a barrier that keeps those electrodes from contacting one another and shorting out.
That separator isn’t needed with the new gel. In a patented high-speed extrusion/lamination process, the gel is sandwiched between an anode and a cathode. The result is a highly-conductive strip that is nanometers thick. It is flexible, damage-tolerant, and can be cut to any size. Its fully-automated production process is said to be cost-effective and safe, as it doesn’t result in any excess flammable solvents or liquid electrolytes. The gel itself contains about 70 percent liquid electrolyte which is mixed with a polymer 18650 battery. The two liquids are mixed with hot water, and set into a gelatinous consistency as they cool.