JUST A SIMPLE INTRODUCTION

If you are a consumer who has wondered why your lithium-ion battery in your mobile device fails your expectations, this blog is for you. If you are technically savvy but you are not a chemist, and often wondered how this lithium-ion battery works the way it does, then this blog is for you. If you are just curious about how to get more out of your lithium-ion battery, then again, this blog is for you.

You have searched the internet for information on the battery inside your gizmo, how it works, how you should take care of it, what the fancy technical terms really mean, and what the manufacturer is promising you and what you are really obtaining….and I am sure you often felt frustrated because, well, little of it made sense to you. You are not alone.

The fact is batteries have for a long time been a forgotten corner of technology. Before mobile devices became anchored in our daily lives, the battery meant that blackbox under the hood of our cars. Batteries did not evoke “clean” or “high-tech.” We wanted a low-cost battery that cranked our engines even in the coldest days of winter.

Then came mobile devices, and now electrified vehicles… and things got more complicated. Everyone had an opinion, or a theory. “No, don’t discharge to empty!” or “Beware, it has a memory effect.” The fact is most of this advice is not based on real science and has little merits. True battery experts are hard to find…universities don’t graduate enough of them, and they are in high demand.

This blog is intended to be read either as individually independent posts, or collectively as one continuous reading. The titles are summarized in the Table of Contents on the right hand side. Start with whichever topic you would like depending on your fluency level.

In the next post, we will start with the basics: What the terms really mean when one describes a battery.