O'Grady's PowerPage

Tag: graphene

  • Leaked images highlight interesting new features for iPhone 16 Pro battery

    Leaked images highlight interesting new features for iPhone 16 Pro battery

    Sometimes the leaks show some really interesting stuff that’s just down the road.

    Although the iPhone 16 Pro release is still almost a year away, a leaked image from Kosutami on X (formerly Twitter), has led to some excitement as to a battery from an early-stage iPhone 16 prototype.

    The battery is unique in several ways. First, it has a frosted metal shell instead of a glossy black foil shell as used in prior models. This presumably helps with heat dispersion and has been used on the Apple Watch since the Series 7. Earlier this month, Kosutami reported that Apple was “actively working on graphene thermal system of iPhone 16 Series to solve the heating problem” and would adopt a metal battery casing “for the same reason.”

    Additionally, a “redesigned connector” is paired with a fractionally larger capacity. The leaked image shows a battery with a 3,355mAh capacity, which is slightly bigger than the iPhone 15 Pro’s 3,274mAh battery.

    As such, the iPhone 16 Pro could offer a significantly improved battery life, and Apple is reported to be working on new battery and thermal tech to help iPhones last longer.

    The iPhone 16 isn’t due to arrive until September 2024, so many things could change between now and then.

    Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.

    Via Macworld and @KosutamiSan

  • Scientists looking into methods of boosting consumer battery strengths via millions of tiny holes

    Even if you’d like to throw your MacBook or MacBook Pro’s battery through a wall on occasion, there’s hope.

    Per BBC News, a new battery development technique could allow batteries for phones and notebooks to recharge up to ten times faster and hold a charge ten times larger than current technology allows.

    Scientists at Northwestern University in the US have changed the materials in lithium-ion batteries to boost their abilities.

    One change involves poking millions of minuscule holes in the battery.

    Batteries built using the novel technique could be in the shops within five years, estimate the scientists.

    In essence, a mobile phone battery built using the Northwestern techniques would charge from flat in 15 minutes and last a week before needing a recharge.

    The density and movement of lithium ions are key to the process.

    Dr. Harold Kung and his team at Northwestern said they have found a way to cram more of the ions in and to speed up their movement by altering the materials used to manufacture a battery.

    The maximum charge has been boosted by replacing sheets of silicon with tiny clusters of the substance to increase the amount of lithium ions a battery can hold on to.

    The recharging speed has been accelerated using a chemical oxidation process which drills small holes – just 20-40 nanometers wide – in the atom-thick sheets of graphene that batteries are made of.

    This helps lithium ions move and find a place to be stored much faster.

    The downside is that the recharging and power gains fall off sharply after a battery has been charged about 150 times.

    “Even after 150 charges, which would be one year or more of operation, the battery is still five times more effective than lithium-ion batteries on the market today,” said lead scientist Prof Harold Kung from the chemical and biological engineering department at Northwestern.

    So far, the work done by the team has concentrated on making improvements to anodes – where the current flows into the batteries when they are providing power.

    The group now plans to study the cathode – where the current flows out – to make further improvements.

    A paper detailing the work of Prof Kung and his co-workers has been published in the journal Advanced Energy Materials.

    Stay tuned for additional details as they become available…and a MacBook Pro battery that charged in less than 15 minutes, the ladies would love it.