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+title = "Sony's Batteries"
+date = 2023-10-21T20:28:09-05:00
+draft = false
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+
+
+
+The cutting-edge of current energy storage technology
+is the lithium-polymer battery that powers most smartphones, laptops, tablets and other consumer devices.
+Lithium is the metal with lowest density and with the
+greatest electrochemical potential and energy-to-weight
+ratio, so in theory it would be an ideal material for batteries. And indeed, lithium battery technology had been
+around for most of the 20th century. But the technology
+really took off in the 1990s, in the wake of the demise
+of another consumer technology – cassette audiotapes.
+
+The Japanese company Sony had, with Holland’s
+Phillips, commercialized the Compact Disc (CD) technology for music in the 1980s; by 1990 CDs had completely replaced audio cassettes, and Sony found itself
+with factories full of old, unusable equipment for making
+magnetic tape for cassettes. Sony’s scientists searched
+for another use for this equipment, settling on American
+chemist John B. Goodenough’s invention of the LiCoO2
+battery cathode, and French research scientist Rachid
+Yazami discovered the graphite battery anode. Sony
+discovered that instead of coating polymer tape with
+a magnetic film for data recording, they could coat it
+with a goopy paste that turned it into one of Yazami
+and Goodenough’s battery electrodes to create a longlasting, lightweight and powerful battery. In 1997, Sony
+lightened its battery even further by throwing away the
+metal battery casings, replacing them with a polymer
+pouch made of material similar to the cassette tape
+plastic. The lithium ion polymer (LiPo) battery was born.
+These batteries held their electrolyte in a solid polymer
+composite instead of a liquid solvent, and the electrodes
+and separators are laminated to each other, allowing
+the battery to be encased in a flexible wrapping instead
+of a rigid metal casing. Such batteries could be specifically shaped to fit a particular device, which is particularly useful for smartphones, radio controlled aircraft and
+consumer electronics with unique, idiosyncratic shapes.
+Lithium ion technology advanced further, as it has
+come to be a core automotive technology, largely
+as a result of the success of Elon Musk’s Tesla autocompany. Tesla automobiles can extract greater acceleration than class-leading Ferraris from lithium ion battery packs weighing 990 pounds, storing 56 kWh of
+electric energy and delivering up to 215 kW of electric power. These packs are built of 69 individual cells
+wired in parallel to create bricks; 99 bricks connected
+to create sheets, and 11 sheets inserted to create a
+pack made up of 6,831 cells. Cell temperature levels
+are maintained by a liquid-cooling system with sensors
+within the pack monitored by the car’s software. Tesla
+manufactured over half the world’s lithium ion batteries
+in 2016.