Recharging the future

Three weeks after launching its Galaxy Note 7 in August 2016, Samsung started to receive reports of exploding phones. The company replaced the batteries in 2.5 million devices, but by October, following more fires, including one onboard a plane in the US, it halted sales and recalled 19 million phones. The final tally was 92 overheating batteries and 26 reports of burns.

The recall, which Samsung estimates will cost it in excess of $5.4 billion (£4.5 billion), has been laid squarely at the feet of the lithium-ion batteries that power the phones. But lithium-ion batteries catching fire is not a problem unique to Samsung, in fact it has been a concern for decades. Sony estimates that since their launch in 1991, an estimated over 7 million lithium-ion batteries have been recalled in laptops alone. Recent years have also seen reports of exploding hoverboards, e-cigarettes, a battery pack in a Tesla electric car and now smartphones.

Why are lithium-ion batteries experiencing these problems, and what technology could replace them? Rachel Brazil considers the future of batterires, and the part chemistry will have to play.