What are the benefits of Lithium Polymer batteries?
Lithium Polymer batteries have been around for a couple of years but they have only really taken off in recent years.
They have the potential to replace NiMH and lead-acid batteries, with the added benefit of being safer to use and cheaper.
The biggest problem with NiMH batteries is that they are not rechargeable – unlike Lithium Polymer, which uses electrolytes that are normally mixed into a battery, so you can add more to it as well as remove it from it.
Most importantly, Lithium Polymer batteries are safe to use – unlike NiMH batteries which can be dangerous if not used correctly.
This makes them a very strong
competitor for lead-acid batteries – because most vehicles don’t come with
Lithium Polymer batteries fitted (although some do), and because many people
don’t know how safe they are up till the point when they start using their
vehicle.
Lithium Polymer is also much safer than Li-ion or LiFePO4 battery technology – which can be dangerous if not used correctly or incorrectly handled in some cases.
This means it is safer than many other technologies as well, like Nickel Metal
Hydride (NiMH) technology or Lithium-Ion (LiPos).
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There are several benefits to using Lithium
Polymer Battery technology:
• The
charging rate is fairly fast (around 2C/s) which means that your battery will
last longer between charges (up to 6 months on some models) compared to NiMH
technology, whilst the charge time is nearly identical on all types of vehicles
from Ford, Honda, and Toyota – so you can still enjoy driving your car for a
long time after buying it!
• The
charging voltage (3V/cell) is higher compared to other technologies (4V/cell on
Nissan Leafs and 4.6V on Priuses). This means there will be less risk of losing
cells due to being overcharged or even being able to get back up when the
battery completely runs out!
• The
charging capacity retention is higher than other technologies due to the fact
that there are no electrolytes present in LiPoly battery cells. So instead of
the current flowing through an electrolyte and ionic solid solution within a
lead dioxide anode cell, there’s no electrolyte at all!
• Battery
life is extended by a factor of 10 compared to Li-ion or LiFePO4 technology
which could extend your car’s life by up.
How does Lithium Polymer compare to other battery technologies?
How does
Lithium Polymer compare to other battery technologies?
We’re here to
talk about the Lithium Polymer (LiPo) battery technology.
It’s been a long time coming — lithium-ion batteries have been around since the 1980s. They have come a long way since then, of course, and we’ve achieved many significant advances in technology over recent years.
But this new cell technology has a
lot of similarities with NiMH in that they both use solid electrolytes that are
prone to leaking when you get too much power into them.
But they are
different enough from NiMH that they are often considered two different things,
so let’s start out by clarifying this terminology:
• NiMH: Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) battery is technically an electrochemical cell, but it is also commonly referred to as a “battery” because the chemistry is so similar to conventional chemical battery chemistry.
NiMH uses manganese and cobalt as active materials in its construction and can be used for many applications ranging from laptops, handheld devices, and rechargeable electric vehicles (EVs) to remote controls for garages and cars.
NiMH cells can be made
using carbon fiber or High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE) and contain heavy metals
such as cadmium, lead or mercury in their composition; these chemicals can
cause adverse health effects if consumed by children or adults who aren’t aware
of the hazards associated with them.
• Lithium Polymer: LiPo batteries are manufactured using solid electrolytes which provide high energy density at a low cost compared to other chemistries (there is no metal involved).
The chemistry used in LiPo batteries is similar to conventional alkaline batteries but it differs from conventional lead-acid batteries in several ways:
It uses lithium metal instead of the cathode (the negative electrode), which allows it to be billed directly onto equipment like EVs while still retaining some benefits of lead-acid cells.
The positive
electrode consists entirely of an organic compound called LiBnO 2, which
releases electrons when exposed to power. And unlike other battery
technologies, LiPo cells do not need replacing every few years like
conventional lead-acid ones do (though their lifetime can easily reach ten
years).
This is all-important stuff! So what exactly does each kind of battery offer? Let’s break it down into those big three categories.
For many years, batteries have been the heart of our products. Without them, they wouldn’t work.
But batteries aren’t just components; they are a huge part of
how we think about our products. We need to make sure that we understand what
makes Lithium Polymer batteries better, and why.
One of the biggest advantages is that Lithium Polymer batteries are far more eco-friendly than other battery technology.
They use less energy to get power from the battery
pack and are less expensive for us to produce than other battery technologies.
Compared with Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) or Nickel Cadmium (NiCad), for
example, Lithium Polymer batteries take up less space in the device because
they don’t have as much internal resistance and capacitance, which means
there’s less need for packaging and less waste in terms of space and weight.
A second
advantage is that Lithium Polymer batteries can be recharged faster than NiMH
or NiCad. This means that you can charge your Li-Poly battery pack at home in
far shorter periods of time than NiMH or NiCad packs will allow you to charge
on your own – saving you a lot of time when it comes to charging your Li-Poly
packs – which can be hard to do after a long day at work!
A third discovery was how Lithium Polymer batteries are much lighter and thinner than both NiMH and NiCad technology. This means they use less energy while being able to fit into devices and cases designed specifically for Li-Poly packs, making them more durable so they last longer on average too!
Finally, because
Li-Poly packs take up far less space in their devices compared with other types
of battery technology – making them easier to carry around and easier to pack
in some cases – users will often find that their devices feel more secure
knowing that their Li-Poly packs won’t fall out if they accidentally drop them
during use!
Are there any disadvantages to using Lithium Polymer batteries?
There are a
number of disadvantages to using Lithium Polymer batteries. First, it is more
expensive than NiMH batteries. A complete set of batteries for an iPhone costs
at least $70 (£51 or €62) whereas the same set of NiMH batteries costs $30 (£20
or €33). It also takes longer to charge. The best lipo battery chargers are
around $60 (£47 or €55).
But here's a
fascinating point: not only do you have to buy the expensive chargers, but you
have to buy the expensive battery too! Some people have been known to pay
upwards of $300 for an iPhone battery, which is pretty much unheard of with
NiMH rechargeable batteries.
This has
happened because some manufacturers have been selling their Li-ion cells as
NiMH cells, which is misleading. Some manufacturers only sell their cells in
packs that include both Li-ion and NiMH cells (such as JEI) but not all other
manufacturers do this so it's easy to get confused about what you're buying in
terms of power capacity and how much it costs per unit.
The bottom line is that Li-ion cells are hard to source and are expensive (and hard to test for safety) so even if there were no problems with quality control, having two different systems could lead consumers down different paths.
There's little point trying to make them aware of the difference between the two technologies just yet though and we don't want them buying into the myth that they will be able to use one type or another without having any real impact on their life.
We know they're worried about this but we won't let them invest time in getting
information out there until they've actually had a chance to use something and
see how it works before making a decision about whether it's better or worse
than something better.
How do Lithium Polymer batteries compare to Nickel Metal Hydride batteries?
In a word, better. The LiPo battery technology has been around since the mid-1980s, but the performance of NiMH and NiCd batteries has improved much more recently.
Compared to NiMH batteries (and NiCad batteries in general), LiPos are still somewhat behind the curve on reliability. They also have a rather limited power capacity compared to NiMH and NiCd batteries.
However, that's an area where
LiPos are clearly outperforming NiMH and there is lots of room for improvement.
The reason for this is that LiPos are based on new chemistry—a mix of lithium and polymer—that was developed in the early 1990s by battery manufacturer Polymer Electrochemistry Laboratories.
Polymer chemistry was first introduced in about
1979 when Electrochemists discovered that it had a more predictable charge
capacity than nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) or nickel-cadmium (NiCad). After
several years of research, ECL developed polymer chemistry specifically for
rechargeable batteries—and called them Polymer Electrochemical Lithium
Batteries (PELBs).
PELBs were originally marketed under the brand name "Polymer-Based Lithium Batteries" (PBLBs). Later PELBs came with an improved voltage rating and were renamed "Polymer-Based Lithium Polymer Batteries" (PLBPBs), which explained why some PBLB chargers were branded with "PLBPB".
These new devices had greater voltage ratings and came with higher capacities
than their predecessors; however, PLBPBs did not have any significant
improvement in chemical stability or charge capacity.
After several years of research, ECL developed polymer chemistry specifically for lithium-ion battery technology—and called them Lithium Polymer Battery Charger Technology (LPPBT). LPPBT chargers were initially marketed under the brand names "Lithium-Ion Battery Charger" (LITHB) or simply "LITHB".
These chargers were intended to replace standard battery chargers and charger
cables; however, they were not very successful in this role and eventually
became little more than a marketing effort aimed at selling LITHB over quality
LITHB chargers.
Nowadays most
companies use LPPBT chargers to charge their lithium-ion batteries; most have
some kind of charging cable attached to them, although others have no such
cable at all. In addition to charging cables, LPPBT chargers come.
