A kinder, gentler Lithium-Ion battery

What do laptops, cell phones, and iPods have in common?

They all have a tendency to explode when you least expect it.

Years after its rise to power, lithium-ion battery technology remains the state of the art, with no credible successor on the immediate horizon. It also appears as though the technology has been pushed to its limits and is now getting progressively more dangerous, as reports of batteries that overheat, catch fire, and/or outright explode (in some cases killing people in the process) continue to pop up in the news.

Now a publicly-funded Taiwanese company wants to put all the pyrotechnics to an end by making lithium-ion technology safer.

It's well-known that battery fires are caused by short circuits, and the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) has been looking for a way to keep those problems from happening. The Institute hit on a solution recently: The addition of a polymer known as STOBA, which is added to the cathode portion of the battery.

STOBA works to suppress heat if a battery is mishandled or a design flaw causes it to short out. One of the most severe problems a battery can experience is a physical puncture of the cell, which invariably leads to a short circuit condition and often a thermal runaway (read: fire). But STOBA prevents the short from going critical: A typical short-circuting battery during a puncture situation will hit 650 degrees in seconds; a STOBA-equipped cell may max out at just 140 degrees: Toasty, but not hot enough to require a call to the fire department.

ITRI is now producing samples of its batteries for commercial applications, while other groups, including major device makers like Panasonic, Sony, and Toshiba, keep working on their own methods to make lithium-ion technology less volatile.

Is the end of exploding batteries on the horizon? Let's hope so!