inBUSINESS Issue 15

TECHNOLOGY
How to
charge
your
devices the
right way
BY DAVID NIELD
Without a battery, your
expensive laptop or
smartphone becomes a
hunk of dead electronics.
And these rechargeable powerhouses
have a finite lifespan: Over time, they
will start losing power faster and taking
longer to charge.
To extend the battery’s useful life for as
long as possible, you need to take care
of your device properly. That means
adopting good charging habits and
taking care with battery storage. Here’s
what you need to know.
The science of lithiumion
batteries
The rechargeable
batteries used
by today’s
smartphones,
tablets, laptops,
and other
devices all use
a technology
called
lithium-ion.
As you
might
expect, they contain...lithium ions. As
Popular Science explained in our look at
Tesla’s Powerwall battey:
When the battery is charging, positivelycharged
lithium ions move from one
electrode, called the cathode, to the
other, known as the anode, through an
electrolyte solution in the battery cell.
That causes electrons to concentrate on
the anode, at the negative side. When
the battery is discharged, the reverse
happens. As for those electrons, they
move through circuits that are external
to the battery, providing juice.
Those electrons actually supply the
energy for your smartphone or tablet—
or in the case of Tesla, your entire home.
Laptops and phones use the same
lithium-ion technology for their batteries.
Over the years, scientists have tweaked
the formula of the chemical mix inside
lithium-ion batteries to try and get them
to last longer, charge faster, and work
more efficiently. Despite their tinkering,
lithium-ion batteries still have a set
lifetime. Why?
The cycle of battery charging and
discharging and recharging can only
repeat a certain number of times:
Due to the nature of the chemical
reactions happening at the anode
and cathode, thin layers of insulating
atoms form, obstructing the electrodes’
effectiveness. The limit varies, but most
rechargables will last two or three years,
so if you’ve noticed battery life dropping
on an old smartphone or laptop, you can
blame atomic buildup.
Charging and recharging
So how do you make your lithium-ion
battery last as long as possible? You
may have heard you need to do a full
charge and discharge when your device
is right out of the box—but this doesn’t
really matter on modern batteries. What
matters most is how you charge your
phone or laptop after you’ve started
using it.
Shallow discharges and recharges
are better than full ones, because
they put less stress on the battery,
so it lasts longer. When your battery
is discharging, Battery University
recommends that you only let it reach 50
36
www.inbusiness.co.bw | Issue 15 | 2017