Your smartphone battery is a complex electrochemical device that converts chemical energy to electricity for powering its features every day.
Over time, your battery will lose capacity. While this is completely natural and unavoidable, you can help to delay this by charging your phone regularly and following proper charging guidelines.
Avoid fast charging as this puts additional strain on the battery and may cause permanent damage over time.
What is a battery?
A battery is a device used to convert chemical energy into electrical energy, with its electrochemical cells featuring positive electrodes and negative electrodes connected by an electrolyte solution.
Lithium-ion batteries are the go-to choice for cell phone battery technology. Consisting of lithium compounds that accept and release lithium ions, these lightweight yet flexible cells store large amounts of electricity while remaining lightweight and flexible.
Batteries provide power for many of our modern mobile devices, yet can also be an enormous waste of resources. Their manufacturing, mining, processing and transport may cause environmental degradation, habitat destruction and human rights abuses as well as creating carbon emissions which contribute to climate change.
What is a Lithium ion battery?
Lithium batteries offer superior energy storage in comparison with traditional battery technology, and can be recharged many times without losing their capacity for charging. While lithium metal batteries have the potential to explode under certain circumstances, lithium-ion cells remain safe as long as manufacturers and users adhere to recommended voltage and current levels.
Lithium-ion batteries have become an indispensable power source for mobile phones, laptop computers, hybrid cars and electric vehicles around the world. Their use has grown increasingly widespread thanks to their lightweight construction – much lighter than nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) counterparts – as well as higher energy density. Lithium ions stored between positive and negative electrodes through electrolyte storage function provide energy storage capacity.
How does a battery work?
Your mobile phone batteries are incredible powerhouses that store vast amounts of energy – but how are they managed?
Batteries contain two electrodes (an negatively charged anode and positively charged cathode) separated by an electrolyte solution or gel that allows lithium ions to move between them.
If these ions could freely flow through the electrolyte, they would quickly coat both electrodes, rendering the battery useless and stopping its functionality. But due to an external wire connecting both electrodes, this is prevented, allowing electricity to continue flowing out from it.
This cycle repeats itself every time you charge and discharge your battery, and as your phone usage increases so does this cycle of charging and discharging.
How do I charge my battery?
Modern phones typically measure their battery lifespan in charge cycles. One charge cycle occurs when you have used up the equivalent of 100% of its capacity; your charging habits can have an immense effect on how many full cycles your phone experiences.
Lithium batteries do not experience the memory effect as seen with older nickel-based batteries; however, their capacity declines over time and therefore it is essential that you use your lithium battery regularly and charge it often.
Avoid leaving it at 0% charged for long periods and aim to leave between 20-80% when not in use. Also try not storing in cold conditions as batteries prefer warmth so storing or charging in the cold will hasten their degradation faster.
How do I discharge my battery?
Many people worry that draining their lithium ion batteries to 100% may harm them and other devices. While nickel-cadmium batteries do have memory effects and could potentially experience overcharging issues, lithium ion cells used in cell phones do not.
Partial charge cycles, also known as partial discharge-recharge cycles, help prolong battery life by discharging and charging several times throughout a day. This practice is known as partial charge cycling.
Keep your phone cool; hot temperatures cause its screen and other energy-draining components to drain faster. Disabling location services (GPS or mapping software), disabling applications that use it and turning off notifications as well as using low power mode are also great strategies to increase battery life.
