Reg Hardware

Comments on: Lithium-ion battery beater to debut in 'major' laptop release

If its so good 

Posted Tuesday 7th October 2008 15:27 GMT

I hope laptop manufacturers produce silver zinc batteries that fit current laptops...that would be nice, but unlikely

So this new battery tech will be called... 

Posted Tuesday 7th October 2008 15:36 GMT

Happy

SiZi?

AgZn?

Best yet is,.....ZnAg! <LOL>

Sounds like a Klingon with a bad cold.

sounds good 

Posted Tuesday 7th October 2008 16:07 GMT

Silinc

LiS 

Posted Tuesday 7th October 2008 16:12 GMT

Stop

Where are the Lithium Sulpher batteries for laptops? These are cheaper (material cost) than Li-Ion and claims have been made about a density of from 300-1000% greater. Which is better than a measly 30% of Zinc Silver.

Apparently the name "AgZn" is already in use 

Posted Tuesday 7th October 2008 16:14 GMT

And this article suggests the technology dates back to 1796:

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa5367/is_200407/ai_n21353399

energy density? 

Posted Tuesday 7th October 2008 16:50 GMT

Stop

30-40% greater by volume or by weight? Because silver and zinc are rather more dense than lithium.

Inflammable. 

Posted Tuesday 7th October 2008 16:56 GMT

This would be great for hybrid scooters and ebikes and so on. they always need more power density and not being able to blow up is good.

Silver Ion 

Posted Tuesday 7th October 2008 18:32 GMT

Go

Silver Ion. Got to be the marketer's choice. Sounds valuable, and you can always melt down your batteries for cash if times get tough.

And just imagine the trouble other companies will have when their marketers demand that the engineers create Gold Ion and Platinum Ion technology.

nitpick alert 

Posted Tuesday 7th October 2008 18:58 GMT

Boffin

>> gadget maker's

This should have been a plural possessive.

LiS 

Posted Tuesday 7th October 2008 19:54 GMT

Flame

Don't they operate somewhere above the 150 oC mark. A bit toasty no?

Mines the one with a smoking hole in the pocket...

I stand corrected re. LiS 

Posted Tuesday 7th October 2008 19:59 GMT

Thumb Up

They do operate at ambient. 350 Wh/kg vs. about 160 for lithium ion supposedly. Nice.

@evilbobthebob 

Posted Tuesday 7th October 2008 20:01 GMT

Boffin

More likely still is when a third party battery maker like GP (Gold Peak) will make them for the various laptops already in the market !! They already make replacement batteries for most mobile phone that retail for a lot less than the equivalent branded ones !!

BTW, I must state categorically that I do not own shares in GP although I wish I did !!

Contains water 

Posted Tuesday 7th October 2008 20:22 GMT

Coat

"The battery contains water, so it's not inflammable"

Sambucca, Joan of Arc and the World Trade Centre all contain(ed) water. Doesn't stop them burning with enough provocation.

And the downside is 

Posted Tuesday 7th October 2008 21:20 GMT

if the battery contains more than 100ml of water you can't take it on the airlines - doh !

That than 

Posted Tuesday 7th October 2008 21:34 GMT

"a better rechargeable battery solution that lithium-ion"..

Oh good. That lithium ion. A harder word to type that than.

:)

Technology name 

Posted Wednesday 8th October 2008 04:06 GMT

Surely it should be I/O-Silver.

Away!

How about ... 

Posted Wednesday 8th October 2008 04:35 GMT

... Governments fund competitions and technology demosntration projects to push these things along? I mean, they'll happily give billions in subsidies to fossil fuel companies, so how about funding development/demonstrators/competitions for this kind of technology (and, while they're at it, solar, wind, geothermal, tidal, wave, etc.)?

Usual Suspects.. 

Posted Wednesday 8th October 2008 07:49 GMT

Alert

hey the world goes on.. But the day I see a backwards Dinosuar like a car company announcing a new battery I might just fall of my chair...

I guess the only reason to invest is if you need too, and gasoline is cheap.

If its so Good.. 

Posted Wednesday 8th October 2008 08:01 GMT

Boffin

They should put there money where thier mouth is and offer a warranty on the batteries! that should be enough to convince manufacturers they are serious..

Hydrogen/Mercury 

Posted Wednesday 8th October 2008 08:35 GMT

Good idea on these batteries... Replace the dangerous lithium. Just one problem - they can give off hydrogen - possibly even more dangerous than lithium. So we substitute one problem for another...

They also contain mercury.....

@Parax 

Posted Wednesday 8th October 2008 10:07 GMT

I suspect the biggest fear for a laptop manufacturer is supply and demand.

Never single source if you have the choice, and make sure your suppliers can more than meet demand.

re. How about ... 

Posted Wednesday 8th October 2008 10:15 GMT

But this battery isn't an energy production technology; its energy storage. This is only good for the environment if you have a cheap, green way of generating enough electricity in the first place.

I agree something should be done to promote technologies like this, maybe evaluate for military and other government applications where there's plenty of money available to support the R&D and a nice user base that can get it into mass production, perhaps in return a cut of the license fee for the technology. Above all we need to prevent the suppression of new technologies by their competitors.

Re: re: How about ... 

Posted Wednesday 8th October 2008 18:13 GMT

Not wanting to start a flame war (no, really) .... but I never said they were energy production.

One of the "obstacles" often quoted by renewable energy naysayers is storage and portability (usually of electrical energy). Hence, if energy storage and portability technologies are improved - basically density (joule/kg), cost ($/joule) and scaleable form-factor - then using renewable sources becomes that much easier.

My main point is that Governments are happy to continue to subsidise (to the tune of billions) the use of fossil fuels - how about diverting some or all of that to a whole range of R&D, technology demonstrators and competitions to push these technologies along, particularly to "prove" to potential downstream manufacturers and users (who might otherwise be reluctant) how good they can really be.