Scientists have found a new solution in caffeine to improve the energy efficiency of batteries and lower their cost
June 19, 2024, 17:00
Updated June 19, 2024, 7:00 p.m.
We already know very well what it means for us humans to ingest caffeine. It is a substance with negative elements such as its addiction, but also positive elements as it provides a boost of extra energy. Well, in Japan it seems that they have taken this reference and have discovered what could be the future of batteries. And not only for smartphones like the iPhone, but also for electric vehicles.
The battery revolution thanks to caffeine?
The solution discovered by Japanese scientists and reported in the specialized magazine Communications Chemistry does not consist of simply adding caffeine to the batteries. Nor that this compound was the main one of them. However, they found that it can be a successful formula to convert the chemical energy of a fuel and an oxidizer into electricity.
Scientists at Chiba University have tested and demonstrated how Adding caffeine to the electrodes improves the ORR activity of platinum electrodes by 11 times. ORR is the name for the reaction that occurs when hydrogen and oxygen are converted into water and electricity. All this in terms of fuel.
By adding caffeine to the equation, this oxygen reduction in the ORR is increased, depending less on platinum. And it is that there is also an economic benefit In all this, given that platinum has a high cost of around 30,000 euros per kilogram, replacing part of it with cheap compounds such as caffeine could be beneficial.
Other advances in batteries that we already see in mobile phones
In the end, caffeine is still a great discovery, but in the short-medium term it is not expected to be implemented in commonly used devices such as iPhones. On the other hand, if we see how Android manufacturers have already presented devices with batteries that, although to a lesser extent, are revolutionary.
See as an example the silicon and carbon batteries presented a year ago with terminals such as the Honor Magic5 Pro, with the main characteristic of having a greater energy density and which translates into being able to have a greater battery capacity in smaller sizes.
More recently, there has been news of a OnePlus-CATL agreement, the latter being one of the main battery manufacturers in the world. The idea that the Chinese brand has is to create a new battery called ‘Glacier’ (glacier in Spanish), based in part on carbon silicon technology, since thanks to a negative silicon electrode they would achieve similar advantages , while increasing their fast charging.
On Apple’s part, most of the innovations in this field have come through software. At the cost of strict management of background processes, iOS boasts of being one of those that best manages batteries. Not in vain, terminals like the iPhone 15 Plus barely exceed 4,300 mAh capacity and despite everything it is one of the devices with the best autonomy on the market. And yes, it is notable considering that 5,000 mAh has been popular on Android for years and that little by little we are beginning to see capacities of 5,500 mAh.
Hence it is interesting see next steps from apple in this field. And the fact is that, by integrating a revolutionary battery like these, it could make the iPhone by far the best mobile phones on the market in terms of battery-autonomy. In any case, no news on this is expected soon.
Cover image | Wikimedia Commons and Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash
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