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 the future. With a few simple steps, users can minimize this degradation and extend the life of their devices.

The following are some useful strategies for extending the capacity of your phone's battery.

 

1. Control battery discharge

A typical cell phone lithium-ion battery should maintain 80% of its charge capacity after 300-500 charge/discharge cycles. However, batteries rarely produce this level of performance, and the charge storage capacity sometimes drops to 80% within just 100 cycles.

Fortunately, we can extend our future battery capacity by limiting the amount of discharge from our phone batteries. Since most battery degradation occurs during deep discharge/charge cycles, it is actually best to limit battery discharge during any one cycle before recharging.

As it happens, our device does have a battery management system that reduces damage from overcharging and automatically shuts down when the battery gets too low. Nevertheless, to maximize battery capacity in the future, we should avoid 0% battery markings altogether, and also keep these batteries at least partially charged to avoid deep discharge if they are stored for long periods of time.

 

2. Extend charging time

Many of today's mobile devices have fast charging options that allow users to charge them in minutes rather than hours. This is convenient when we're in a hurry, but should be avoided in other situations. Why? Because charging a battery too quickly can reduce its storage capacity. Physically, the shuttling of lithium metal and lithium ions between the electrodes of a lithium-ion battery is a slow process. Therefore, charging at a lower rate allows a more complete shuttle to occur, thereby increasing the battery's charge capacity.

For example, charging a phone in five minutes can reduce the battery capacity by more than 20 percent for that charge cycle compared to the standard two hours.