Description

Cordless portable electronic devices are proliferating in our mobile, fast-paced world, and they need better batteries. One way to enhance a rechargeable battery?s capacity, cycle life, and rate of charge is to develop improved oxide battery cathodes. While attempts have been made to use conducting polymers as electrode materials for rechargeable batteries, numerous disadvantages were encountered, including low specific capacity (amount of lithium per gram that can be absorbed reversibly) and wide voltage variance as a function of the charge state of the battery.

The solution is a novel oxide cathode design that overcomes the disadvantages previously encountered and successfully enhances a rechargeable battery?s capacity, cycle life, and rate of charge. For example, the invention?s integrated materials engineering approach improves the reliability of lithium ion batteries while enabling new lithium ion batteries to weigh less and recharge faster than present lithium ion batteries of the same charge capacity. Alternatively, the invention enables new lithium ion batteries to power portable electronic devices for longer periods of time than present lithium ion batteries of the same weight.

Benefits

• Larger battery capacity
  
• Longer battery cycle life
  
• Faster rate of charge
  

Features

• Reduces overvoltages at high discharge rates
  
• Does not require extensive design revisions to rechargeable batteries as a whole
  
• Technology is applicable to any rechargeable battery that uses oxide cathodes
  

Market Potential/Applications

Rechargeable batteries, like the popular lithium ion variety, are used in a host of portable electronic devices including laptop computers, digital video recorders, and cordless power tools. The target market consists of the manufacturers of rechargeable batteries with oxide cathodes, particularly the manufacturers of lithium ion rechargeable batteries.

For further information please contact:

University of Texas,
Austin, USA
Website : www.otc.utexas.edu