The ‘What’ & ‘How’ Of Lithium-ion Mobile Phone Battery

1. THE ‘WHAT’ & ‘HOW’ OF LITHIUM-ION MOBILE PHONE BATTERY In today’s digitized and tech-enabled world, mobile phones have become the most basic tech gadgets that most of us have. Our world revolves around our mobile phones and with a few touches, we can access anything and everything we want. However, have you ever paused and wondered what is that one component that our mobile phones revolve around? Well, most of you must have guessed the answer and it is mobile phone batteries that are mostly made of lithium-ion. But, why are we talking about lithium-ion mobile phones battery, right? This is because a major part of your mobile phone’s utility is decided by the lithium-ion mobile batteries and a healthy battery is a must for better performance of your smartphones. In this blog, we have covered the A-Z of lithium-ion phone battery and why we at Amani promote its usage! So, get ready with your reading glasses: What is a lithium-ion battery & how do they work? In technical terms, a lithium-ion battery is a type of rechargeable battery wherein the lithium ions move from the negative electrode to the positive electrode during discharge and back when charging. All the batteries have two electrodes, one anode and another cathode. Apart from this, there is a bunch of material called the electrolyte between these electrodes. Whenever you plug a battery into a circuit that is complete, a chemical reaction takes place at the anode and electrons begin to build around it. As the number of electrons keeps increasing, they tend to travel towards the cathode, where there is less to no crowding. However, the electrolyte between these two parts does not let the electrons from taking a short way there. Consequently, the only path left for electrons to travel is the circuit that the battery is embedded or cramped into. These electrons power your mobile phones in the process. Let us not forget about the positively charged lithium ions, the electrons! They travel through the electrolyte to move to the cathode side. When all the electrons have travelled to the cathode side, this is when the mobile battery is dead or reduced. But there is a catch here! If you're using a rechargeable battery like a lithium-ion mobile phone battery, there is always an opportunity to reverse it. Wondering how? Well, the energy dumped into a circuit through a charger, the reaction taking place is forced to go in the other direction and get the electrons to begin to gather at the anode again. Once the lithium-ion mobile battery is recharged, it mostly stays that way until there is something for it to charge or power again. Although all batteries, even the lithium-ion phone battery, leak some charge over a period of time. Now, most of you must be wondering what factor decides the capacity of a battery or how long can it stay charged, right? There is a simple answer to all these queries and that is decided by the number of lithium-ions that can gather themselves into the porous craters of the cathode or the anodes. As time passes and due to the repeated charging, both anode and cathode degrade and fail to fit in the lithium-ions (in great numbers) as they did initially. The Recharging Process of a lithium-ion battery:

2. The process of charging a battery is easy and it can be understood as filling a bucket with ‘power’. In simple words, from the outside, that is exactly how it works, but if we talk about what goes inside of it, well, the process is a little complex. A lithium-ion mobile phone battery usually charges in two stages. The first process is that of constant current charging and it is rather simple. The charger for the mobile phone or the tablet provides a steady electricity current to the lithium-ion battery to get all those electrons back to the anode. At this stage, the charger only determines the amount of power coming out of the firehose and then begins spraying. The higher is the constant flow of current, the faster the lithium-ion phone battery can charge. High voltage quick chargers just like the ones that are coming with a lot of new mobile phones nowadays take advantage of the first stage usually. Whenever the mobile phone battery is 70 percent recharged, the process gets reversed to constant voltage charging, which is the second stage. During this stage, the charger ensures that the voltage is defined as the difference in the flow of current between the lithium-ion mobile battery and the charger. In a practical sense, this implies that as the battery is about to get fully charged, the current sent by the charger decreases. As the lithium-ion mobile phone battery is about to get fully charged, the rate of charging decreases. In today’s time, most lithium-ion mobile batteries have some type of power management IC. The purpose of these power management IC is to prevent overcharging of the batteries. These are not only found in smartphones but on iPods, laptops and cars. In fact, most of the popular smartphone brands like Samsung, Infinix, iPhone and Nokia use lithium-ion batteries. Why does Amani Mart Promote the Use of Lithium-ion Mobile Batteries? 1) Durability: The first and foremost reason why we at Amani Mart promote the use of lithium-ion mobile phone batteries is their durability. If lithium-ion batteries are compared with other battery technologies like zinc-ion batteries, sodium-ion batteries, etc, the lithium- ion batteries comparatively take a lesser time to charge and last longer on a single charging. In addition to the factor of charging faster, the lithium-ion mobile batteries have a higher density of power that ultimately ensures enhanced battery life 2) Ability to Store More Power: A lithium-ion mobile battery can easily store a significant amount of power i.e. 150 watt-hours of electricity (in a battery of 1 kg). This extensive power storage ability is much more than other battery technologies that can store power, like nickel-metal hydride batteries. For instance, nickel-metal batteries can store about 60 to 70 watt- hours of electricity per kilogram, the batteries found in cars i.e. lead-acid batteries have the capacity to store only 25 watt-hours per kilogram. You can clearly see the numbers are much lesser as compared to the lithium-ion phone batteries. 3) Lighter Batteries: The electrodes of the lithium-ion mobile phone battery are made with light-weight elements like lithium and carbon and this is why the overall weight of the battery is light. Although these are not the most light-weight batteries but are much lighter compared to their alternatives.

3. 4) It Makes Charging Process Easier: The lithium-ion phone battery is easier to charge as compared to other battery technologies. You can easily charge your mobile phones and there is no need to wait, leaving your smartphones plugged into the charging points. Furthermore, in the case of lithium-ion batteries, you need not wait for them to discharge from 100% before putting them in for recharging and even if you forget to remove your smartphone from the plug-in point, the electricity flow would not have any side effects on it. 5) Maintenance Cost is Low: The maintenance of the lithium-ion phone battery is comparatively low and when it is disposed of, its battery cells tend to cause no to little harm (to the environment). FAQs: 1. What are lithium-ion batteries? The lithium-ion batteries can be understood as a type of rechargeable battery in which the lithium ions travel from the negative electrode, i.e anode to the positive electrode i.e cathode during discharge and back when charging. 2. Why is the lithium-ion mobile phone battery better on the utility front? The lithium-ion mobile phone battery is more durable, involves low maintenance cost, and is lighter compared to other battery technologies. Additionally, it makes the charging process convenient and easier. 3. technologies? If you compare a lithium-ion battery with other battery technology like zinc-ion batteries, sodium-ion batteries, etc, then a lithium-ion battery takes a lesser amount of time to charge and lasts longer on a single charge. Additionally, lithium-ion mobile batteries have a higher power density that ensures enhanced battery life. 4. How does a lithium-ion mobile battery work? How is a lithium-ion phone battery durable as compared to other battery A lithium-ion mobile consists of two electrodes, one anode and another cathode. Apart from these two electrodes, it also consists of material between them, called electrolytes. Whenever the lithium-ion battery is plugged into a complete circuit, a chemical reaction takes place wherein electrons begin to build around the anode. As the number of electrons increases, they wish to travel towards the cathode side, where there is less crowding. But, the electrolyte between them does not allow the electrons to take a short way. Hence, the electrons are left with no choice but to travel through the circuit and during this process your mobile phones get charged.