Anyone who owns an older phone or laptop will regularly find themselves cursing out the battery and its inability to stay alive. What’s just as annoying is how long they can take to charge (10 per cent in one hour? Come on!)
It’s a sad reality, that lithium-ion batteries do degrade more and more with use. Even with proper care, you’ll eventually have to throw in the towel and upgrade it.
But why is this the case?
It is common for Lithium-ion batteries to suffer from a loss of charge transfer as they age. This happens as passive materials form on the electrodes and hold back the flow of free electrons. As a result, this lowers the lower ionic conductivity, raises migration resistance and decreases the surface area.
Once this type of severe ageing occurs, it cannot be reversed or fixed.
This happens once the batteries cycle life is up. Lithium-ion batteries usually have thousands of charging cycles (depending on the manufacturer). It is recommended when you charge a lithium battery, you leave it between 40 per cent and 80 per cent and only go through a full charging cycle once a month.
