It feels like nowadays you need to upgrade your phone at least once every other year. Otherwise, your phone’s performance begins to drop, eventually holding only a fraction of the charge it used to when you first purchased it. It is a frustrating experience to go through, but there are some steps we can take to slow down the process of battery degradation; however, there is some other relevant information we will need to go over.
The Process of a Lithium Battery
First, it is important to understand why our batteries degrade over time by learning how our batteries are even able to power our electronics. The process of how lithium-ion batteries work comes down to a few key components, such as the anode, cathode, a separator, electrolyte, and current collectors.
The process of charging and discharging a lithium-ion battery essentially comes down to transferring the lithium ions stored within either the anode or cathode. During charging, the cathode releases the lithium ions, by making use of the separator and electrolyte, which allow for safe transfers of these lithium ions, and are then received by the anode, where the current collector will hold the lithium ions. During discharge, or use of the battery, the opposite process happens. This cycle continues as the battery is being used to power our cell phones, laptops, smartwatches, and much more.
The Degradation of a Battery’s Life
Now that we better understand the process of how these lithium-ion batteries power our devices, we can then analyze and assess why they degrade over time, and thus affect our device performance. Over time, the cycle of shifting the lithium ions back and forth within the battery degrades the inner components listed earlier. This can include the current collectors becoming damaged, not being able to collect as many ions, and as a result, holding less of a charge when ions are being transferred. Another possibility for degradation may occur within the electrolyte, where decomposition can occur. If the electrolyte begins to degrade, then the amount of ions it can transfer will become limited.
The number of cycles is generally a good way of tracking how far along your battery has begun to degrade, as there are general indications of how degraded batteries become at certain milestones, such as cycle numbers 100, 200, 300, etc.
What You Can Do About It
Now, you can not directly stop the degradation of your battery; it is just a part of the lifecycle of these batteries, and eventually, all our batteries will stop working one day and need to be replaced. However, there are some general tips and advice that can slow down the process of degradation, as some conditions can increase the process of battery degradation, and you may not even be aware of it.
Charging Habits
The way you charge and discharge your battery affects the degradation of your battery for a few reasons. If you were to leave your battery charged for an extended period of time and charged to a full 100%, the battery will typically degrade due to stress on the internal components listed earlier. Discharging or using the battery heavily for something demanding will cause the same issue with the battery. For this reason, it is recommended to keep the general battery levels between 20%-80%, to reduce the stress of a full charge/discharge on the battery.
Environmental Factors
Some environments, such as extreme heat or cold, can lead to battery degradation as well. Extreme heat can cause the evaporation of the electrolyte, which, as explained before, is responsible for allowing the transfer of the lithium ions. By having less of the electrolyte present, there will be fewer electrons that can be formed by the battery’s cycle. Extreme cold can result in an increase of internal resistance within the battery, limiting the transfer of power. The cold can also result in freezing of the electrolyte present within the battery, causing internal damage. For these reasons, it is recommended for batteries to stay within a normal room temperature to reduce degradation.
On The Horizon
Battery technology has begun to evolve again, where newer batteries seem to consist of newer technologies that will change the industry standards and allow us to make more use of our devices that seem to consume more power consumption such as EVs. These breakthroughs will allow certain industries to improve their products and allow us to enjoy more benefits.
I hope you learned a little more about these lithium-ion batteries that power all our devices and found it to be an interesting read. If you can be mindful of any of these tips listed earlier, then your battery life, and by extension, the devices powered by them, will last much longer.