"The next big thing is to successfully reduce the cost in camcorder batteries and a reduction in the amount of time to charge," CSIR manager of the energy and processes and conference chair Dr Mkulu Mathe told News24 at the International Battery Association conference in Cape Town.
Delegates from around the world at the conference discussed ways that batteries can be improved for high-capacity applications such as electric cars. This would have knock-on effects in areas like cellphone and laptop battery packs in terms of charging time, weight and capacity.
"Knowledge is old; thinking is innovative," said Mathe. "There are concerns around cost and the variation of the chemistry. If the weight can go down, it will improve performance, but it's an area that continues to pose challenges."
The biggest modern leap in battery technology came with the introduction of the lithium-ion digital camera battery. Dr Michael Thackeray, John Goodenough, and co-workers identified manganese spinel as a cathode material in 1983.
New technology
"After the introduction of the lithium-ion cell phone battery in 1991, it's been improved by a factor of two. There's been a lot of engineering and now it's starting to plateau," said Dr Steven Visco of PolyPlus Battery Company in California.
"We could think about silicon and package it better," said Professor M Stanley Whittingham of Binghamton University in New York. He first proposed lithium-ion dell laptop batteries in the 1970s.
They warned though, that simply introducing new technology was not a simple matter and there was a time lag before the technology was widely adopted.
"New technology will take 15 to 20 years to come to the market," Visco said.
He also cited the introduction of hybrid vehicles like the Toyota Prius which initially sold poorly before becoming a synonymous with environmental responsibility.
The introduction of zero emission electric vehicles has also had hiccups, as the public charging infrastructure is not yet in place to make these vehicles widely practical.
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