We have 2 bonus videos with ~40 minutes of extra content this time: 1. Breaking down fast charging tech: nebula.app/videos/techaltar-how-fast-charging-took-over 2. Interview with Counterpoint Research: nebula.app/videos/techaltar-interview-with-peter-richardson-counterpoint-research The Nebula / CuriosityStream bundle is no longer active. Instead, you can sign up for Nebula directly with my discount now for about $2.5 a month with a yearly plan, which includes Nebula Originals AND the whole Nebula Classes platform, too, including my own class. Sign up here: go.nebula.tv/techaltar

I have a drawer full of old phones I can't use due to their dead batteries... You could say they're free of charge.

I am a battery engineer, and I have to say that this was very well researched. With phone batteries in particular, they rely very heavily on cobalt because they are almost exclusively LCO-based chemistry. Compared with cars which are typically NMC, NCA, or more recently LFP as you mentioned.

I am honestly OK with the battery charge density as of now, but I think that the near term goal is to make them last at least twice as longer in terms of charging cycles. I am ok with charging my phone every day, but I am not ok with the battery degradation.

My main problem with lithium ion batteries Is their health declining over time Battery health degradation honestly gives me anxiety

When we look at Moores law of doubling number of transistors on chip every two years, we might feel tempted to think similar development is possible in other technologies, but its not.

As a chemist (who is also interested in electronics) i have something to point out: - Not only sodium is heavier than lithium, but it also have a slightly lower (well actually higher, because it's a negative value) redox potential (talking about the Na / Na+ couple), and even more importantly it has a larger radius, which make it difficoult to intercalate it in a crystalline stucture, such as graphite (Na also forms dendrites when crystallizing). Na is also much more reactive than Li, exploding in contact with water instead of "just burning", but at least it doesn't burn in N2... - EVs are the devices which benefit the most from Li-ion tech: since they have to carry around the battery, the lighter this is the less energy you waste in carrying it around. Using a less energy dense battery type on EVs is ideally wrong. For stationary devices, on the other hand, weight is not an issue. - Silicon doesn't have any energy storage power, because it's not involved in the redox cycle. The sole responsible for energy storage in Li-ion batteries is lithium, and this is why you would want to use pure lithium as your anode, instead of using lithium ions intercalated in graphite / silicon. Unfortunately this is impossible, because of lithium's tendency to form dendrites, which then short the battery, triggering an explosion. This is ultimately due to lithium's crystalline structure (which cannot be changed). - Solid state batteries were thought to be a way to prevent dendrites formation, hence to use pure lithium as an anode, eliminating the need for an intercalating material (such as graphite / graphene or silicon), thus increasing energy density. However, solid electrolites looks to be ineffective to limit the formation of dendrites. - Making batteries more energy dense would be extremely dangerous: since batteries contain a full redox system they are essentially a fuel which already contain the oxidizer to burn it. In other words they're a lot like gunpowder, or thermite (which is the best analogy, due to its metallic nature). The fact that Li has the lowest (-3.07 V for Li / Li+ couple) redox potential of the entire periodic table doesn't help: it basically means it can burn in everything using everything as an oxidizer (apart from noble gases). It's also one of the two known metals (the other one being magnesium) capable of burning in a pure nitrogen atmosphere. This is why Li ion batteries are considered a dangerous good and can't be shipped on airplanes. In synthesis, Li ion battery technology has reached its full potential speaking of energy density. We have kinda reached the end of Moore's Law for batteries. If an improvement to battery life can be made, this will come from software optimization, SOCs specifically designed for mobiles (such as Apple A series), new manifacturing process nodes and more efficient displays.

They could also try to reduce the power that the phone needs. New displays or low energy CPUs could help to make the battery last longer.

Great video! Hope developers can focus on making computing more energy efficient since battery capacity has hit a plateau

Perhaps the most significant problem is that batteries actually degrade, which means that their capacity slowly becomes smaller and smaller. Which means after a certain amount time you will need to replace it.

The consistency !!! As usual, a well explained video. 🙂

Potentially, there might be better charge carriers than lithium in the guises of beryllium and boron. Both elements are only slightly heavier than lithium, but carry more charge (electrons to give away) than lithium. Potentials issues though are availability of the element and how willing they are to give their electrons away in the battery.

This is a better summary of upcoming battery technology than any other video I have seen discussing the topic.

I'm glad you're back. These videos are some of the best that are out there!

Well having an option to replace just the battery in my phone would be another way to make it better. Even if they managed to make it last double at new, what is the point if it doesn't last a day after two years of use.

Been waiting for these types of contents regarding battery technology

I think for mobile tech the other side of the equation might be as important as battery tech. Apple virtually doubled battery life in their MacBook range by switching from Intel to Apple Silicon. I think a shifted emphasis to efficiency across the market is pretty important. Obviously there's less room to squeeze in the smartphone market where efficiency has been a much bigger factor already but I expect there's still some room to move in that space. At the moment we seem to be getting bigger and bigger phones with hungrier processors and bigger batteries for steadily diminishing returns.

One of my favourite videos of yours!

I think the next step is to make much more efficient chipsets rather than more powerful ones + industries research alternatives to Lithium-ion/polymer not only in phones but for other specific applications (like lithium iron phosphate for drones) so the demand for components for lithium-ion/polymer is reduced

I admire your graphs and visualization abilities even more than your great content and topics. Every time I'm watching your videos I'm taking screen shots to show people the beautiful graph I just saw in your video. Thanks a lot.

Great video! Finally a clear description of battery tech

As far as phones go, I've never understood why they don't just make them like 30% thicker. That should allow for maybe a doubling of battery size, and if it wasn't for this "form over function" obsession with getting ever slimmer electronics, it would be hard to even notice the difference. I would take double battery life in exchange for a few extra mm thickness any day. It's a much worse problem in other devices where you can't so easily just expand the battery - like a smartwatch for example. And this is why I think we are heading for a potential disaster with the rate at which we are carelessly using lithium/cobalt and those other very limited materials to power everything. For wearables we really have no other good options right now due to the density and weight needs - but it is a terrible idea to use lithium-battery tech for large-scale grid storage for example. We will already struggle to make all the lithium batteries we need for EVs (where weight is also crucial). Let's not waste these precious resources for static batteries too where size and weight is much less of a factor. The unfortunate reality is that very few people with real power over how the market develops care about sustainability. It's all powered by shortsighted greed. if there is profits to be made right now and lithium is marginally better suited right now, then they will use it even in cases where it's arguably not needed. Even if it will end up making the tech prohibitively expensive for later generations. Sure - we may have managed to create better alternative batteries at a reasonable cost before we hit the brick wall on this, but that's not guaranteed by any means - and it is very irresponsible to just assume that science will save us out of every pinch like this.

Such a good vid!! Been following for years and quality has always been impeccable But whilst I'm gushing... I'm so glad I'm a child of the walkman era - such a gamechanger to all of tech, and both Sony and Ninetendo used to feel so on it 👌 back then.

That was one Fascinating video. Amazingly explained 🔥

The least improved part of a smartphone is resistance. You used to buy a phone and that's it. Use it. Now you have to buy a screen cover, a phone cover. Phones used to drop on the floor and one piece got to each side of the room, you put them together and done. Now it scratches, breaks, etc. We are now using expensive fragile bricks made of glass rather than a decent piece of hardware that can stand day to day use.

Something that is needed to included and considered is that the modern SOCs got incredibly smart with Power management. Drop voltage, control clock speed and activity, cut power of features that are not in use and the list goes on

I really like this video. I have seen a lot of videos claiming "the next big thing" is only a few years away. This is an honest overview which is a lot more useful

I wasn't expecting to learn so much so quickly... subbed.

Writing a paper on batteries and this video cleared up some confusion I had, thanks!

Sad that a few years ago there was a supposing GRAPHENE Battery that was to come out it seems that has Poof from existence (not really but you get what I'm saying)

I am very happy that story behind is now back and uploading regularly.

This video was incredible. Thanks for bringing this to the world!

I just love this channel. It's very informative. Thanks man

Would love to see some statistics on the median and variance of battery life :)

“Batteries are holding progress back”…. Or focus on improving the energy efficiency of displays, processors, and antennas maybe…

Thanks. Well explained. Concise, but with helpful detail and good examples.

Thank you so much for this video. I really appreciate it. This video is so important

I think the main problem with batteries is their decay. If they remained working correctly we could keep using them as-is. But they lose their properties quite fast and require replacement or at least an external charge at some point. The only reason I am replacing my iPhone 6S now is the battery, the phone works just fine for me, but the battery is pretty much gone after a little usage.

They are getting better in the way of being managed. I have set an alert when the battery is outside the 35-75% range, which helps prolong its life a lot.

Fascinating great work.

Since I was born in 1951 I remember in my young years that there were two main rechargeable battery technologies. One of them was the lead acid battery, such as used in cars. The other was nickel-cadmium battery known is the Ni-Cad battery. Now we have these lithium batteries that can hold a lot of energy for their size and weight.

Your videos are always brilliant; this one is exceptionally so. Very nicely done.

6:25 Can't help but notice that while average battery capacity improved by 39%, the Counterpoint's battery chart managed to increase by 364% 🤔also the exponential graph 😅

Amazing video and info as usual. Thanks!

Very well presented and researched Marton brother.👍🏼👌🏽

I can only imagine the insane amount of research that went into making this video 🙌

Imagine a 1 week battery an a phone. 2022 and we still have to dream..

Im a chemichal engineering student. More than half of my professors' areas of research are solid state batteries. Very hot right now.

great to see a new story behind video. Bears looking sharp✌️

While I am glad battery tech are being improved, I really want to see batteries that can last longer and stays cool, especially when viewing video content, playing games or multitasking where the battery drops quickly, and it seems to get worse over the years as well. I'd like to see improvement in this aspect, that would be great! Less charging as well and waiting for the battery to get full.

I don't care about charge speed, I care about longevity. If I was forced to charge my phone at 5w for it to live 2 extra years, I'll take that any day than 120w charging

Good! To the point and well researched!

nice episode keep up the good work

In the lab it looks nice, but an improved battery coming to market always seems three years away. Excellent video in any case. Good research and nice graphics. I subscribed. All good wishes.

Yes, this old battery tech is holding more powerful gadgets back. BUT -hear me out- it also forces companies to make their processors and stuff more and more efficient to squeeze more performance out of every mAh the battery can deliver.

Love the graph visuals

Excellent video, big man

I have an idea. Why don't we make removable batteries in our smartphones. Just imagine how awesome it would be, if we could open our phones and take out the batteries by hand without special tools.

Great video but you only talked about the energy density side of things. Wouldve been great if you included the efficiency of the batteries aswell! One of the biggest problems is cooling the batteries. Because of the high internal resistance of current batteries they tend to release quite alot of energy as heat and tesla found a great way to massively reduce the resistance by introducing the tabless design. This means higher amperage & less heat 😄

thank you TA! Great video as always. Cheers from a happy subscriber 😀

Your content and editing skills are lit 🔥

More battery capacity doesn’t necessarily mean longer battery life on a phone but it also depends on the phone’s power consumption and efficiency

Episode 86? Man, it feels like I saw Episode 1 a few weeks ago!

great content as always

Thanks for the video , very interesting .

It seems like we have a few different paths to improving battery life: improve battery capacity, improve hardware efficiency, offload processing (to the cloud or to a paired personal computer), and develop longer-range wireless charging.

it's absolutely mind boggling to me that one of the biggest challenges for EVs is that we literally cannot trust humans around the globe to not abuse one another while extracting resources.

Love this high quality vid❤

Extremely well done video

The tipping point for batteries will be reached when the energy density of Li-Ion battery will be three times of the batteries currently in use. In practice, the battery of the size of a current petrol tank of an ICE car will allow the same 600+ miles for a single charge. This may take anything from five to twenty years, depending on the level of investment the battery manufacturers decide. The energy density improvements will not come from new material or chemicals used for the batteries; they will rather stem from new crystalline structures achieved with new manufacturing techniques. Regards, Anthony

There's constant noise going on in the video, especially when talking - video is great, but I think the noise issue is something worth looking into.

Another amazing video!

Worth to watch your videos

I like waterproof phones. But god I hate the non removable batteries. I tried living with it and what happens? "OOPS your phone screen is black and restarts and running it out of power doesn't work to reset it!" Solution turned out to be to disconnect the battery and reconnect it. Would have been simple with removable batteries, but nope, this sealed phone design has dug its heels in and how convenient that we need special tools or pay an exorbitant fee just to do something that used to be routine.

Planned obsolescence is a very reliable employee.

great video, keep up. you are doing great :)

Great video with great info thanks

In my opinion, I think we should try to optimize software more, than try to brute force more battery capacity. Cool video tho. It explains a lot in a manner that's easy to understand

This is an excellent piece of research, lots of new technologies are being trialed by our military and their research areas for future power and future green power.

Great video 👍🏼❤️

damn that was a really good video, keep up the great work! 😄👍 You just earned a new subscriber!! 🥳

7:30 the resources are only valuable if they're used. Not "stripping" them would mean no money for them.

@12:40 Graphite also expands during lithiation. The conversion of C6 to LiC6 has a volume increase of about 10%. Per lithium, the expansion differences between graphite and silicon are not THAT different. The issue is that silicon can hold a magnitude more lithium per unit of mass.

You are a treasure. Elsewhere in comments there are engineers lauding the accuracy and comprehension of this video whilst I on the complete opposite end of the spectrum feel like I didn't get lost in your explanation once, not one bit. Just as an unusual bonus I rarely find an accent that makes it easier to understand someone. And when I say rarely I mean never.... Thank you.

Very informative video

I think the comparison with Moore's Law is kind of stupid. There is nothing in physics that hinders this 'law' and has its focus merely on fabrication progress of structure size. Nobody expected something like this from batteries, since we already know what the energy densities of every single molecule is. And there is no combination of molecules that will lead to EXPONENTIAL energy density increase.

Great video overall, however QuantumScape as far as I know has not given up on solid state

this is such an interesting video format, very glad the youtube algorithm led me here :)

Well researched

Impressed by this vid, subject is clearly important on many levels, and TA presentation style is reassuringly definitive. Sad that the exploitation really has not improved in the global supply chain and the same disgusting behaviours is rampant in tech as all the others, channels such as TA should keep reminding us of the harm we are causing. I love tech and my phone but hate that folks are dying for it. Same story with so much of our 1st world products, like cacao growers who have never tasted chocolate, or oil producing countries who's population remain poor due to corruption, or fast fashion enabling child workers....

You didn't mention that Li-ion batteries can only be charged to 80% quickly and then have to be trickle charged. This why car companies only ever give 0 to 80% charge times. A friend of mine went to buy an electric car and they couldn't tell her the 0 to 100 % charge time !!!

The asterisk correction 😂 top tier production here

Cool video, thanks!

Don't dumb down your videos, chemistry is a good thing in your videos

Silicon isn't all that abundant anymore. It is mostly extracted from beach sand. Humanity has already extracted most of the beach sand in the world to the point where we have to extract even more underwater - thanks to vanity projects like Dubai's artificial islands. The impact on the environment is very concerning.

Fantastic video, 👍

Love how you didn't shy away or gloss over the ethical factory for batteries, great video

Right to repair should hopefully put an end to this shady practice of soldering batteries into phones.

When the battery is too good the sales of the new phone might plummet. That's why the manufacturer might increase the battery size but CANNOT increase battery reliability. Phones without an original charger like most phones sold lately also will make the battery broke faster

13:02 now imagine phones still had easily-user-replaceable batteries that are somewhat standardized and companies like Sila/Amprius could simply manufacture aftermarket-upgrade batteries for existing devices while iterating research of new battery materials, without a need to build whole new products for starters