ColdFusion - Samsung's New Graphene Battery

Starting point is 00:00:00 You are watching Cold Fusion TV. Hi, welcome to another Cold Fusion video. As we approach the 2020s, it's becoming clearer that strangely enough, our future may be a battery powered one. Today, 4 billion smartphones depend on batteries. Battery powered electric cars are becoming a reality, and even parts of cities such as Adelaide and entire islands in Hawaii are being powered by batteries, as I've shown in previous videos. In addition to all of this, the most recent development,

Starting point is 00:00:35 The most recent development is the mass production electric aircraft. I've been spending a little bit of time with one such aircraft called the Pippistril Alpha Electro and it's been really interesting. I've flown in it and even taken the controls for about 30 seconds. Here's how it sounds starting up and how it sounds flying past. Relatively quiet. It's all fascinating stuff and there'll be a short documentary on my thoughts on this tech coming up later on this channel.

Starting point is 00:01:17 But anyway, the point of me stating all of that was just to highlight that there's a growing need for high performance batteries in our world. We demand more and whoever can come up with the technology to push the state of the art forward will find themselves in an extremely lucrative position. The race for the perfect battery technology is on and the latest contender is Samsung. Just before we get started, I just want to give a shout out to Squarespace for helping make this video possible. Squarespace is one of the easiest ways to build a website.

Starting point is 00:01:45 There's nothing to patch or upgrade ever and it's flexible. I personally like how easy the templates are to use. When I was making my music page, I could just drag and drop SoundCloud links right in. If you want to create your own website, whether you're an artist or blogger, or just have a cool idea that you want to showcase, definitely consider using Squarespace. Visit www.square space.com slash cold fusion to get 10% off your first purchase. So Samsung has announced that they've developed a way to improve lithium-ion battery technology with graphene.

Starting point is 00:02:16 So what is graphene? is a crystalline form of carbon in which a single layer of carbon atoms are arranged in a regular hexagonal pattern. Think of it like this. Imagine a diamond. Now slice this diamond so it's only just one atom thick. This slice is still as strong as a diamond, but flexible, light, and an excellent conductor of heat and electricity. Graphene's material properties are staggering. It's the thinnest material known to man and the strongest ever measured. It can stretch up to 20% of its length, and is the most efficient electrical conductor known, and at room temperature, it can sustain current densities

Starting point is 00:02:54 six orders of magnitude higher than that of copper. It has the best thermal conductivity of any material and is the most impermeable material ever discovered. It's incredible stuff. Just as a visual illustration of just how strange graphene is, here is a video of some carbon nanotubes, which are basically a rolled-up version of graphene. So with that in mind,

Starting point is 00:03:28 Let's take a closer look at Samsung's graphene battery. Samsung's version of graphene comes in the form of little balls, basically a 3D structure synthesized from silicon dioxide. Here are some magnified images of the growth of graphene balls from silicon dioxide. Magnified and magnified again. These graphene balls cover the anode and cathode material. This enables the batteries to charge five times faster than currently possible, as well as some other benefits which we'll talk about in the bit.

Starting point is 00:04:01 it. The new battery technology was developed by Samsung SDI, which is the company's battery arm, and the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology. These two bodies were in collaboration with the Seoul National University's School of Chemical and Biological Engineering. As a side point, Samsung SDI just unveiled some new battery tech at the 2018 Detroit Motor Show that claims that just after 20 minutes of charge, they can power an electric car for 600 kilometers. Alright, so what are the advantages? These graphene balls, when put on the cathode of the battery, suppress the damaging reactions that occur with continued charging while also improving efficiency of current flow.

Starting point is 00:04:41 The new cells are said to retain 78.6% of the capacity after 500 charge cycles. This is about on par with current batteries, but this should improve with time. In the case of extremely rapid charging, things are a little bit different. Here's a chart of the capacity of a regular battery versus a battery with a battery. graphene balls added over time. This isn't the scenario with extreme charging. Notice the steep drop-off of the regular battery, which is the black dotted line. Normal batteries in comparison just can't handle the current. Samsung also states that these new batteries could have 45% higher capacities than when compared to the current state of the art. Charging times will be 12 minutes instead of one hour.

Starting point is 00:05:22 A lot of people might be thinking that this new technology would be expensive, and that's quite logical, but Samsung does claim that these graphene balls are cheap to manufacture because it's using a new method called chemical vapor deposition. Quote, our research enables mass synthesis of multifunctional composite material graphene at an affordable price. At the same time, we were able to considerably enhance the capabilities of lithium iron batteries where markets for mobile devices and electric vehicles is growing rapidly. Our commitment is to continuously explore and develop secondary battery technology. in light of these trends."

Starting point is 00:05:59 It's probably important to note that this isn't just some hypotheticals or some conjecture, but rather the results after some rigorous testing. The detailed paper was published in nature and can be found online and I'll leave a link to it below if you're interested in reading more about the technology. So while this is very exciting stuff, Samsung has not yet stated when they plan to release the technology. And after what happened with the Galaxy Note 5, I think they'll be taking some precautions to make sure everything is in order before release. So a battery with 45% higher capacity and 12 minutes charging time sounds promising and I think if there's any company that has the resources to make this happen, it would be Samsung.

Starting point is 00:06:37 Apple sure has the money, but they don't seem to be as widespread and dedicated in their research departments. So let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Since we're at the end of the video, I just wanted to make a quick announcement. I'm actually writing a book right now and have been for the past six months. It's about the history of science and technology from the Industrial Revolution till today. You'll be hearing more about it in the future, and I'll also have some corresponding videos that I'll put up on this channel. Thanks for watching, guys. This has been DeGogo. You've been watching Cold Fusion.

Starting point is 00:07:06 Feel free to subscribe if you've just stumbled across this channel, and I'll catch you again soon for the next video. Cheers, guys. Have a good one. Cold Fusion, it's new thinking.

ColdFusion - Samsung's New Graphene Battery

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