To make your phone's battery last all day
As cell phone users, all we want is enough battery life. Frustratingly, the older a device is, the less power it seems to have. In fact, the battery life of our phones on any given day depends on two key factors: how we use them on that particular day, and how we've used them in the past. Cell phones use lithium-ion batteries for energy storage. In this type of battery, lithium metal and lithium ions move in and out of the individual electrodes, causing them to physically expand and contract. Unfortunately, these processes are not fully reversible, and as the number of charge and discharge cycles increases, the battery loses its charge capacity and voltage. To make matters worse, the electrolyte (conductive liquid) that connects the electrodes also degrades during these cycles. The ability of a lithium-ion battery to store charge depends on its degree of degradation. This means there is a link between the way we handle our devices today and the charge capacity available in...