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Wagamaga OP t1_j5yzfpm wrote

Rather than disposing of batteries after two or three years, we could have recyclable batteries that last for up to nine years, by using high-frequency sound waves to remove rust that inhibits battery performance, the team says.

Only 10% of used handheld batteries, including for mobile phones, are collected for recycling in Australia, which is low by international standards. The remaining 90% of batteries go to landfill or are disposed of incorrectly, which causes considerable damage to the environment.

The high cost of recycling lithium and other materials from batteries is a major barrier to these items being reused, but the team’s innovation could help to address this challenge.

The team are working with a nanomaterial called MXene, a class of materials they say promises to be an exciting alternative to lithium for batteries in the future.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-34699-3

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TheGodEmperorOfChaos t1_j601aqk wrote

Gonna be honest here, I'm starting to wonder what cheap ass, peak capitalism, planned obsolescence kind of back end products most people buy for their batteries to last only 2-3 years.

I've had phones with li-ion batteries that still work for 8+ years. The motherboards and protective plates have started to corrode and the plastic has started to degrade and fall off in chunks, but the batteries don't shows any wear and tear. And that was a $350 low/mid tier phone at the time. I'm even thinking of rooting it to install a custom Rom and give it a few more years of life, if I can find a back plate replacement cause the buttons fell off.

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CompromisedCEO t1_j5z90mz wrote

This is a bit misleading.

This doesn't apply to current batteries but rather some magical future battery which rusts. You can remove this rust with sound waves yet, removing the material would lesson its lifespan anyway, right? Since it doesn't undo the oxidisation process.

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tornpentacle t1_j5zignl wrote

Not magical. One of the rules in this subreddit is to assume basic competence of the researchers. They have good reason to do this research.

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NevyTheChemist t1_j5zgelb wrote

How would this even work anyways? It looks like you'd have to take the battery out of the phone (which is a pretty big ordeal now), take the material out of the battery packaging, treat it and out it back together.

Seems hardly practical.

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Banea-Vaedr t1_j5z179z wrote

I can't wait for smartphone companies to not use this technology!

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Thopterthallid t1_j62d86c wrote

Mobile phones don't even have replaceable batteries anymore.

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kittenTakeover t1_j60gupt wrote

Does anyone know what the long term solution is for technology? If we keep throwing everything into the trash how long until we run out of the most valuable resources needed for important electronics? Anyone know?

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weaselmaster t1_j620h25 wrote

Who throws things in the trash?

My electronics are all recycled - by NYC law, actually.

A bit of a pain in the butt to hold on to old devices and electrical equipment until an electronics recycling day, but even the copper and magnets from random electrical/appliance devices get reused in this way.

Outside of NY, I have to pay a small fee to bring my electronics to a container at the local garbage/recycling center, which then gets transported to a similar electronics recycling/recovery center.

If your town doesn’t have such a facility, you should fight for it!

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kittenTakeover t1_j63kd17 wrote

I think it's much less common for good recycling programs than you think, and I can guarantee that any program that requires people to make a special trip and pay a fee at garbage center is going to do very poorly, regardless of how easy it is.

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insaneintheblain t1_j67dir5 wrote

You assume anyone alive on this planet knows what they are doing.

No one is in charge.

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slickhedstrong t1_j5z2t6l wrote

i keep my phones for like 6 years until the batteries aren't good anymore. it's called a compromise

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Viper_63 t1_j6078jx wrote

>Rather than disposing of batteries after two or three years

Interesting to frame it this way, given that most phones nowadays don't even feature easily replaceable batteries.

People don't "dispose of batteries". If anything they dispose entire phones. Not to mention that most "phone batteries" I have come across actually last a lot longer than two or three years to begin with.

>Only 10% of used handheld batteries, including for mobile phones, are collected for recycling in Australia, which is low by international standards. The remaining 90% of batteries go to landfill or are disposed of incorrectly, which causes considerable damage to the environment.

>The high cost of recycling lithium and other materials from batteries is a major barrier to these items being reused, but the team’s innovation could help to address this challenge.

They don't actually adress the issue they are complaining about here, which is "handheld batteries" not being collected for recycling. How is introducing yet another "revolutionary" battery technology going to prevent phones ending up in landfills becasue people dispose of them incorrectly?

Answer: It won't.

What a strange article.

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Picolete t1_j6071ur wrote

Every month a new battery that will never come

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NevyTheChemist t1_j5zfplp wrote

Phones are all sealed up now and batteries are soldered. This is going to cost more than the value of the phone.

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CptVakarian t1_j5zg0nf wrote

With the right to repair stuff going on, there's absolutely no way that batteries will be soldered. (they actually never were as far as I'm aware)

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