Even if it is hard to believe, the work with Li-Ion batteries started in 1920. Of course, they were not designed for laptops. There weren’t any computers, so how can we speak of laptops? But only in 1970, this technology becomes massively spread and the manufacturers of electronics start to use this idea when creating their products.
I have to mention this one more time: the laptops were not invented yet and the batteries made of Li-Ion cells were designed especially for flashlights, in other words for those devices that helped humans to use electronics that are not connected to a wall outlet or plugged to a source of electric power. This is a source of energy, but provided by batteries. Another type of batteries are the solar batteries, which use their power thanks to the sunlight. Even when it is clouded outside, these products based on solar batteries can attract the energy from the outer space. This doesn’t happen in the middle of the night. It has to be day.
Other illuminating devices, like lamps used this technology 30 years ago. The lithium is one of the lightest metals there are on Earth, that is why the computers that use this kind of technology with the battery and all inserted inside the computer, weigh less than 1 lb. The researchers discovered in time, that this material, this element, provides a great electromechanical potential, this is why they developed their studies, because something massive was about to emerge. This was the use of the Li-Ion cells at a grander scale than they ever imagined. I guess there are people who died before seeing their dream come true: the use of light metals for providing energy cource, which is not conditioned by the sun, the moon, or by the electric current coming from a wall power source.
The feature that allows the batteries to recharge themselves when connected to a wall power source was improved in time, but extremely slowly. Even today, the batteries don’t last more than 10 hours. Ok, some of them do, but they don’t allow you to run demanding applications, to watch videos on YouTube, to listen to music, while you write a review and things like these. You simply need to maintain the computer running and this is all: there you go, the battery provides 10 hours of runtime, but with you doing nothing. It is difficult even in our days to create batteries that provide a long runtime, so what more can we say about the methods used 30 years ago in terms of creating alternative energy sources.
The lithium as a metal is very instable, thus it cannot be used for creating devices that work without the classic sources of energy. Unless, it is used in other way. For example, the scientists thought of using the non-metallic lithium cells for creating batteries to solve the problem of charging the batteries. Nothing of which they made years ago did not seem to solve this problem. It is hard to isolate perfectly the lithium ions in order to make the battery to provide its full energy. In fact, at the beginning of the development of batteries, a battery provided for a certain time (usually small) the amount of energy stored inside it and then the user had to replace the battery with a new one, because that oudated battery, that depleted battery was good for nothing, after a single use.
The lithium ions are not that instable as the lithium as a metal. Still, you need good chemists to stabilise them and to isolate them, as I said before, in order to give all the battery has best in it. Anyway, the user also has to protect the battery using it in certain conditions.
The regulations of how to keep a battery safe were exposed in another article of mine. I will summarize here in few phrases what you should do, in case you haven’t read the article. The batteries and also the computers have to be used in proper conditions, these including in rooms or offices with no dust, no direct sunlight, no high humidity, and not being covered in materials. The computers don’t feel the cold as we, the humans do. Of course, it is recommended not to keep a computer running at a temperature below 0 degrees Celsius, but this doesn’t mean that you have to cover it in blankets, like you do with a child, although neither the child should be exposed to these temperatures. Except perhaps, if you live in Alaska or Russia.
There are computers that are used and working just fine in those exact mentioned conditions. How is this possible? First of all, those computers are made of different materials when talking about the casing of the computers and the internal components are better protected, not like in a regular laptop. The disadvantage of these computers is that they are heavier and harder to deal with. Luckily, the researchers and developers today are trying to create better protected laptops, that can be used in mines, in airports and airplanes, thus at high altitudes, at construction sites, laptops that will provide the same performance as regular laptops or higher and that will be lighter that they are today, in order to help the user when he carries the computer. Considering that these locations require not only technology in terms of computers, but also Wireless technology, Bluetooth, perhaps cables and all sorts of wires, networks and others, the weight of the computer is very important.
