Re: Are Lithium Ion batteries avail...

["Robert George" <george@holmes.cs.nps.navy.mil>]

Randy, Josh,

> 	The good news is that perhaps farther into the future there is
> a truly *fascinating* battery technology coming available (no, I'm not
> talking about Zinc-Air).  Tentatively, they were calling it
> "Lithium-Polymer".

Both the American ventures I read about (ATT, and "American Battery Company"?)
were using variations of the Lithium Polymer.  From the article I read, (I'm
trying to remember where) the big issues are safety.  The cathode in the Sony
battery is a sheet of Lithium, so if the battery is cracked, the Lithium is
exposed to water vapor in the air and you get an explosion.  The Lithium
Polymer battery is a solid sheet of cathode/electrolyte/anode polymer, so
there's virtually no safety hazard, but its exceptionally difficult to get the
electrons to flow through the polymer.  Both companies seem pretty close
though...

>What about the lead acid batteries that IBM first used in the original
>Thinkpad 500 models?

Again, I think these were pulled for safety reasons.  When lead-acid batteries
leak, you get hydrogen gas...

> The good news is that perhaps farther into the future there is
> a truly *fascinating* battery technology coming available

I truly hope so, everything else in this industry practically doubles in
performance every six months, while the battery companies for years sold
nothing but Nickel Cadmium.

Robert

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| Robert George            |  Army Research Laboratory              |
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    --Ecclesiastes 1:18