Li-ion batteries: news, progress, history and background

An article (http://www.technewsworld.com/story/55187.html) over at TechNewsWorld cites how a Northern California man received second and third degree burns to at least half his body while sleeping when his cell phone spontaneously exploded in his pocket. The phone, located in his front pants pocket, ignited his clothing and led to a larger fire. The cell phone's manufacturer, model number and technical information have yet to be released. Though serious, these accidents are "relatively rare" according to Scott Wolfson, deputy director of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission's Office of Public Affairs. "It is important to keep stories like this in perspective. We don't want to scare consumers into thinking this is a frequent occurrence," said Wolfson. Wolfson then mentioned that while these accidents can occur, they're often the result of a malfunctioning battery or consumer misuse such as leaving a cell phone in a heated environment or droppin

Most of the excitement recently in the battery world has been over lithium-ion batteries – and not in a good way Li-ion batteries and cells have some nasty characteristics, such as the potential to catch fire when they're overcharged or improperly charged. In addition, li-ion batteries pose a disposal problem, since lithium in not environmentally friendly. A British start-up Toumaz, wants to make patient monitoring as simple as sticking on a Band-Aid – in fact, they call their Sensium sensor/monitor system "Digital Plaster", plaster being the British term for a small, disposable, sticky bandaid. As we saw in an earlier post, the Sensium chip is part of a platform the senses its environment and transmits information through a wireless network, developed by Toumaz. One of the company's earliest customer's was a hearing aid company, and hearing aids typically use zinc-air batteries, which are cheap, easily disposable (a huge plus for the bandaid model) and have a hig