Google is working on a flexible solid-state battery

Apr 11, 2015 08:42 GMT  ·  By

Battery life on mobile devices has always been a controversial topic, as most smartphones today only offer up to 24 hours of working time on a single charge. Device manufacturers have been trying to perfect battery efficiency since forever, and now Google seems to have also joined the race.

According to a new report coming out of Wall Street Journal, a small team inside the Google X Labs started researching new battery technologies to be implemented into devices like smartphones, wearables, tablets, and more, ever since 2013.

The group is being led by former Apple battery expert Dr. Ramesh Bhardway and was originally formed in 2012.

Google wants to make smartphone batteries better

The report goes on to reveal that one project Google is interested in right now is developing a flexible solid-state battery that can replace liquid chemicals with a solid though which current is transmitted.

Such a technology would lead to batteries being produced in layers. It would also mean mobile powerhouses would get to be smaller and a lot safer. So scenarios where batteries explode out of the blue while charging should become obsolete.

These batteries might be used to power flexible products (maybe Samsung’s flexible smartphone that can be turned into a wearable?) and could even get injected into the human body, although we’re not exactly sure what the purpose of such an action would be.

Implemented in a device like the Google Glass, such a battery could bring about video streaming abilities to the wearable, a feature that always tends to put a big toll on the autonomy of a device.

Google wants to control more of its destiny along the chain of hardware supply

Back in 2013, Google’s CEO Larry Page was heard saying that battery life for mobile devices was a “huge issue,” but the company was looking towards the possibility of inventing new and better experiences.

Two years after this statement was made, we’re finally given a glimpse of Google’s plans for better, brighter batteries.

However, the search giant is not the only one working on the batteries of the future. For example, a few days ago, we told you that researchers at Stanford created an aluminum-ion battery that allows for super-fast charging time. Apart from the fact that it can recharge in under a minute, this battery technology also eliminates high manufacturing costs.