In the paper, the academics find that if you heat a battery, it lasts longer. Because it’s an academic paper, there’s a lot of information about the mechanisms involved and talk of dendrites and the like.
Heating the dendrites – filaments that grow inside rechargeable batteries – was found to shrink them. At 55°C, they were shortened by up to 36%, reducing the chance of short circuits. Further simulation showed that the warmer the battery, the more lithium atoms ‘shuffled around’ and the more likely it was the dendrite would topple.
Those of a certain age will remember the good old transistor radio, powered by a couple of disposable zinc carbon dry cell batteries – the good old U2 in its paper wrapper.
When the batteries started to lose power, the solution – albeit short term – was to place them on a radiator. Voila, power was restored.
As they say, what goes around comes around.
