Nanoparticles with Aluminium ‘Yolks’ Could Enhance the Life-Span of Rechargeable Batteries

Aluminium `Yolk’ – Rechargeable Batteries With Longer Life-Span

Due to aluminium `yolks’ in the batteries, mobile phone batteries of the future can have immense upgraded capacity as well as lifespans. A team of researchers at MIT and Tsinghua University in China have located a way of developing electrode comprising of nanoparticles having solid shell with internal `yolk’, and have apparently solved an issue with present rechargeable batteries which understands that performance tends to considerably deteriorate after repeated charges.

The invention could improve cycle life according to the team, providing a boost in the battery’s capacity as well as power. According to results, the recently developed lithium-ion battery is more resistant to the damage triggered by frequent charge cycles.

While the present electrodes tend to degrade over a period of time after growing and shrinking in size with multiple charges, the aluminium `yolk’, filling of the latest design nanoparticles tend to permit increased growth causing less damage to their titanium-dioxide shells. This latest technology not only introduces rechargeable batteries with longer life-spans but it could also have an effect on how long future batteries could hold out between each charge.

Impressive Performance

Though the scientists are still on lab experiments on the technology at the moment, they have expressed confidence in the study owing to the relative low cost of the materials as well as the simplicity of the manufacturing system.

According to an Associate Professor at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, David Lou, `these yolk shell particles portray very impressive performance in lab-scale testing and the most attractive point of this work is that the process seems simple and scalable’.

 The latest findings, that utilise aluminium as the main material for the lithium-ion battery’s negative electrode, or anode has been reported in the journal Nature Communication, in a paper by MIT professor Ju Li together with six others. The team has reported that the use of nanoparticles with aluminium yolk together with titanium dioxide shell has been recognised as the `high-rate champion among high-capacity anodes.

The present lithium-ion batteries which are the most widely used form of rechargeable batteries tend to use anodes which are made of graphite, a type of carbon. Graphite has charge storage volume of 0.35 ampere-hours per gram –Ah/g.Researchers have, for many years explored various options of providing greater energy storage for a given weight.

Aluminium – Low Cost Option

Lithium metal for instance have the tendency of storing around 10 times as much energy per gram though could be extremely dangerous and capable of short-circuit or even catching fire. Silicon as well as tin has a high capacity, however, the capacity tends to drop at high charging and discharging rates.

Aluminium seems to be a low cost option with theoretical capacity of 2 Ah/g. However, aluminium and other high capacity materials, according to Li, tend to expand a lot when they get to high capacity and when they absorb lithium; they then shrink while releasing lithium.

The expansion and the contraction of aluminium particles tend to generate excessive mechanical stress causing electrical contacts to disconnect. Moreover, the liquid electrolyte in contact with aluminium also decomposes at the required charge/discharge voltages.

 It forms a skin known as solid-electrolyte interphase- SEI, layer which would have been alright if not for the repeated huge volume expansion as well as shrinking, causing the SEI particles to shed. Owing to this, previous attempts in creating an aluminium electrode for lithium-ion batteries had not been successful.

The First Hydrogen-Powered Battery That Will Charge Your Apple iPhone for A Week

Intelligent Energy- Developed Working iPhone 6 – Built-in Hydrogen Fuel Cell

Intelligent Energy, a British technology company has claimed a main smartphone breakthrough by inventing an iPhone that can remain without recharging and runs instead on a built in hydrogen fuel cell. The company had developed a working iPhone 6 prototype comprising of both a rechargeable battery together with its own patented technology in creating electricity with the combination of hydrogen and oxygen producing small amounts of water and heat as waste.

Scientists have been aware for over 175 years that the reaction of hydrogen and oxygen which can produce water can also create electricity. Intelligent Energy’s advanced version of the chemistry uses layers of steel as well as plastic which are similar to the breathable Gore-tex preferred by hikers in order to multiply the effect. The company is said to be working closely with Apple and what is said to be the first in the world, has incorporated a fuel cell system in the present iPhone 6 without any changes to the size or shape of the device.

The only differences when compared to other handsets are the rear vents for the slight amount of water vapour to escape. Intelligent Energy would be scrapping the diesel backup generators which tend to power mobile masts when India’s grid takes one of its common unscheduled breaks.

Intelligent Energy Considering Cartridges Sale

The company which is based in Loughborough would be replacing around 26,000 internal combustion engines with its own hydrogen fuel cells driving the sub-continent’s mobile setup to the cutting edge of the energy industry. Over the years, the company has built up a portfolio of around 2,000 patents and patents pending, in order to protect its version of a hydrogen fuel cell. Intelligent Energy is said to be considering on the cartridges sale price.

Executives are of the belief that for the price of a latte, a market valued as much as £300bn a year could be opened up. Chief executive of Intelligent Energy, Henri Winand, who has refrained from commenting on rumours of Apple’s involvement, had said that `to their knowledge, this has never been done before.

 He has informed that they have achieved in making a fuel cell which is so thin and can fit in the existing chassis without the need of any alterations as well as retaining the rechargeable battery. This has been an important step and if one intends moving to a new technology, one will have to give people a path they would be comfortable with.

Refuelled Through Adapted Headphone Socket

Seen by The Telegraph at Intelligent Energy’s Loughborough headquarters, on the prototype fuel cell iPhone, hydrogen gas is refuelled through an adapted headphone socket. The company is creating a disposable cartridge for the commercial launch that would slot in the bottom of upcoming smartphones and comprise adequate hydrogen releasing powder for a week of normal usage without the need for recharging.

The company’s corporate finance chief, Mark Lawson-Statham has stated that `their view is that this is out for a couple of years though it’s’ about how soon their partners would want to press the button and get on with it. Apple has refrained from commenting. Intelligent Energy has been selling fuel cell charger already, known as Upp, solely through Apple Stores.

How Apple's Force Touch could change the way you use your next iPhone or iPad

Apple’s Force Touch – A Pressure Sensitive Display

The next iPhones of Apple would be announced next month which will be an `S’ year which means that if Apple tends to stick to the pattern it observed since 2008, the 2015 iPhones would maintain the same simple designs as the previous year’s model and concentrate instead on `under the hood’ enhancements. The big feature this year seems to be the Force Touch, a pressure sensitive display together with vibrating haptic beneath.

Apple had already released its two products this year which had Force Touch with each showing off their potential successes as well as pitfalls on what seems like Apple’s most prominent new technology of 2015. By definition haptic means any interaction involved with touch though there is a difference between advanced haptic and the vibration one gets on the phone. Rather than a buzz, one would feel a single tap or changing intensities of ripples.

Force Touch is a combination of pressure-sensitive display together with haptic feedback underneath. Game controllers such as the Xbox One tend to utilise the advanced haptic to develop rumble feelings as well as controller feedback. Apple’s Force Touch is appealing due to the introduction of a pressure sensitive touch display and most of the everyday touch screens presently available are not pressure sensitive.

Force Touch Trackpad – Send Variable Levels of Pressure

Apple Watch has Force Touch built in its display. The new Retina MacBooks, the Pro as well as the 12-inch have Force Touch enabled trackpads though they feel totally unlike from each other. The MacBook’s’ trackpad feel same like a regular trackpad though its click is a delusion – it is really using haptic.

A nested double click occurs between the first click and what occurs when one press down further, that extra second click tends to trigger contextual action such as a variation of right click. On a site, it tends to bring up definition of words or phrases one may highlight. At the time of video playback, it could organise change playback speed.

Force Touch trackpad tends to send variable levels of pressure though presently its use is being discoveredsubtly. However, it feels like a real button click. The software keyboard with Force Touch on an iPad will be very interesting.

Bigger Screened iPad Pro – Worked with Haptic Feedback/Force Sensitive Display

A bigger screened iPad Pro that had been rumoured for years worked with haptic feedback, force sensitive display together with a special stylus.

This proposes true pressure sensitive drawing and painting for artists, a feature which has made specialized styluses as well as input pads beneficial for graphic design. Microsoft Surface Pro already measures pressure sensitivity with the stylus as well as the Samsung S-Pen on the Galaxy Note 5.

 However an extra layer of feedback through haptic on the iPad could be utilised in developing sensations of textures or could sense borders or layers. Apple needs to make sure that force Touch does more than stand in for the type of touch and hold actions which exist already to bring up menus, or pull up extra actions such as deleting apps or copying and pasting photos as well as text. It is essential to feel like a useful, extra dimension of control and to be well integrated across apps and iOS 9.

Apple's New Blueprint for Your Next iPad

Blueprint of Apple’s Rumoured iPad

There was a point when tablets had filled every space in the group with consumer having a wide choice but over a period of time, the markets began splitting. An image had been posted by Twitter account OnLeaks run by Steve Hemmerstoffer, the site editor for Nowhereelse.fr, a French news site which has posted various reliable leaks in the past regarding Apple’s earlier iPads prior to their release.

Should his blueprint tend to be accurate, the upcoming launch of the 12.9 inch screened iPad Pro would measure about 12 x 8.7 x 0.2 inches. It would be larger than the iPad Air 2 with regards to length and width where the iPad Air 2 is 9.4 inches long and 6.6 inches wide though it is just slightly thicker at 0.28 inches thick as against 0.24.

The blueprint of Apple’s rumoured iPad that was leaked online, portrayed the tablet’s full dimension with an idea on what it could look like. He notes that though the blueprint dates back to December 2014, there could be a possibility that it could be out-dated and is not sure till Apple discloses about its next iPad which normally occurs in October.

Second Port/Inclusion of a Stylus/Split Screen Multitasking With iOS

Besides its larger screen and thinner frame, the next iPad is said to have a second port as indicated in a leak from Dutch blog VandaagApple. Rumours regarding the larger iPad has also revealed the inclusion of a stylus and would be probably introducing split screen multitasking within iOS, a feature which according to some was what Apple was striving to debut with iOS 8.

If the reports, rumours and leaks that have been circulating seem to be true, then this would be Apple’s largest iPad so far. It would probably be more appealing for enterprise use cases, a motivation which Tim Cook; Apple CEO had been speaking in the past. The iPad Pro’s bigger screen would be in an improved position in competing with the other tables which have been optimized for productivity such as Samsung’s Galaxy Note Pro as well as Microsoft’s new Surface.

Apple’s next tablet will be having a number of changes over its earlier models. Beside the larger screen size, the addition of Force Touch to the UI will enable easy access to extra options as well as settings while using application. The rumoured use of a digital stylus will support the creative process on the large screen.

Success – Low Margin Devices

When the tablets had first been introduced, computing landscape was very much different from what it seems currently. The main factors of mobility were reliance on laptops in doing significant portable computing jobs and smartphones with a four inch display was used for communication and connectivity.

From these it went to a nine or ten inch screen the first generation tablets were shipped with, inclusive of the original iPad and the distinctive advantages in portability as well as screen size which a tablet could offer became clear. While Android smartphones hold the majority of the market share – 82%, most of the success is around low margin devices.

Though Apple’s iPhone may not have the overall numbers, it tends to commands more profit per handset setting up Apple in gaining much of the profit from the smartphone ecosystem. If Tom Cook together with his team could perform an identical strategy in the tablet field in creating a high end device like the iPad Pro, it could draw the bulk of the profit from it and leave the low margin/high volume commodity game to other manufacturer.

A Deeper Look at the New Google

Google’s Holding Company – Alphabet

Prior to the death of Apple’s Steve Jobs, he had informed Google co-founder and CEO, Larry Page that his company had been trying to do too many things and as Page later told the Financial Times in his reply that `if they did just the same things they had done before and did not do something new, it would seem like a crime to him’. Yet Page acknowledges that Jobs could have been right to a certain extent – he would manage only so many things before too many of it would get lost in the shuffle.

These two desires , one to do new things irrespective of how weird and unrelated it could seem to Google’s core search and advertising business and still find a way in managing them to completion, explains the surprise announcement of Page’s that he intend creating a holding company by the name Alphabet. 

This would separate Google’s profitable ad-related businesses, which include mobile software as well as the video site YouTube from the company’s range of efforts on human longevity, internet access balloon, self-driving cars; the Nest connected home devices etc. where each of them will probably be a separate holdings

First Step in Fulfilling the Company’s Long-Standing Goal

However, the move, though applauded by investors, is just the first step in fulfilling the company’s long-standing goal in making Google a long term success as well as the world a better place’.According to several management experts, Alphabet would be successful if the individual project and companies would be successful enough on their own to become freestanding companies, ultimately and the new corporate organization qualifies that to occur though it does not guarantee it. 

At first, it is essential to dismiss the notion which Page together with co-founder Sergey Brin had developed such as the Berkshire Hathaway of the Internet, an updated version of Warren Buffett’s company. A professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, Michael A. Cusumano commented that `the comparison seemed to be silly and Buffett invests in existing, undervalued companies something like mutual fund is the opposite of Alphabet’s VC-style focus on risky new ventures like Calico.

New Businesses Tend to Get Short Shrift in Resources

According to David B. Yoffie, professor of international business administration at Harvard Business School, states that if Page and Brin attempt to run alphabet similar to an updated Berkshire Hathaway or General Electric, which is a more tech focused company, they would run into trouble. 

They have been running differently from successful tech companies and that he is doubtful since it is difficult to have a company structure in the tech world’. Regardless of closely related businesses, companies like Microsoft, Samsung, and IBM together with Hewlett-Packard have found it difficult to succeed. 

Moreover, they have also found it difficult to capitalize on updated products and services. According to Yoffie, new businesses have a tendency of getting short shrift in resources as well as management consideration. 

This is specifically what Page as well as Brin intends to avoid with Alphabet. Page had written in a blog post which means `alpha-bet’ or an attempt to get returns above `alpha’ – a normal target. In any circumstance, the reorganization sets Google/Alphabet on the track which may not be easy to change in the future if it does not tend to work since it will be more than a just a promise of reporting Google’s financial result and the alpha-bets separately.