Another Revolutionary Battery - The Zimmerman Battery
Many of you may have read this great article by @alexpmorris discussing a new form of battery – the solid state battery that uses solid-glass electrolytes. Upon reading his article, I was reminded of another solid-state battery that was recently invented. This battery was the solid state polymer lithium metal battery, or as I call it, the Zimmerman Battery, which is named after its inventor, Mike Zimmerman.
Batteries always have had to deal with two problems – safety and storing energy. Solid state batteries can hold more energy than lithium ion batteries but were not safe to use. This is because structures called dendrites begin to form inside the battery over multiple uses. Grow the dendrites large enough and they will short circuit the battery and cause the electrolytes to combust. Lithium ion batteries had the opposite problem. They were safer but held much less energy. In addition, all batteries had scaling issues. One of the reasons why the Samsung Galaxy Note 7’s failure was that the lithium ion battery was thin, which necessitated a thin separator (for the anode and cathode), resulting in the batteries easily catching fire.
The Zimmerman battery solves these problems by using solid state polymer battery. These types of batteries use solid metal electrodes and electrolytes, allowing the battery to hold more energy while being extremely safe to use.
Cut a Zimmerman battery, and not only does it not become a fire breathing dragon, the battery will still function! The Zimmerman battery also solves a problem exclusive to solid state polymer batteries themselves. Previous versions of polymer batteries, such as the ones used in Tesla cars, could function only if they were pre-heated to impractically high temperatures.
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The Zimmerman battery overcomes this by using a special polymer that Mr. Zimmerman developed. While the battery is still in development, we can expect to see Mr. Zimmerman’s new technology change the energy industry. Electric companies can better store energy during down times, electric cars can last longer, and our phones will finally not explode in our faces.
Sources
New York Times - Designing A Safer Battery For Smartphones (That Won't Catch Fire)
Ionic Materials (Mr. Zimmerman's Start-Up)
NOVA - New Damage-Proof Battery Has Higher Energy Density, Won't Explode
Also, thanks to PBS for helping me discover this new technology!
Great article! One can really feel how excited you are about this new technology. That makes your article sometimes read like a - well made - ad. ;-)
Haha, thanks!
Just a disclaimer though, I don't work for the start-up in any way.
Great article!
Batteries really need more research. There are crucial elements of many device we use in our everyday life and the used technology is in my opinion oldish compared to what could be done. I hope the Zimmerman battery (or any other option) would be widely used soon :)
Thanks! The battery is still in development.
Regardless, we are living in an exciting time for in the field of energy. All these new technologies are beginning to be developed or commercialized, like reliable solid state batteries, solar energy, and nuclear energy (both fission and fusion types). Better ways to generate and store energy would really accelerate technological development in other fields and hopefully allow human society to rise to a new level of complexity.
I totally agree with this! We are living an exciting time on many different aspects, which is also a weird moment with the daily amount of violence we can witness from everywhere...
With all due respect, I would probably disagree with the last statement. We are living in the most peaceful time in human history. It's just that the media, being the media, hypes a lot the violence that does occur. That being said, we should still try to strive for complete peace and prosperity for everyone.
I was more speaking about violence at the level of the every day life. But you are right with respect to the fact that we are just more "informed" (note the quotation marks).
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