Technology is evolving. Fast. Although we can think that mobiles in Europe were the same two decades, the reality is that We see more or less important changes every few years. And we are currently at the gates of significant importance with access to artificial intelligence, but also before a bound relevant to battery equipment.
Ten years ago, we already talked about a new technology that started to be seen in Japanese business laboratories such as Hitachi, This made it possible to create batteries for more compact mobile devices and with greater energy density, which seemed to be the quadrature of the circle. To do this, it was used, in addition to the usual materials, silicon Y carbon.
He had to spend a decade for Start seeing this type of technology commonly implemented By certain mobile manufacturers, especially the Chinese. Honor presented a mobile with this type of battery in 2023 and OnePlus works on a compact terminal with this type of battery, Samsung seems to begin to implement them in their wide range in 2026 and Xiaomi also points in this way.
What are the silicio carbon batteries
The vast majority of current mobiles use lithium-ion (Li-ion) or lithium polymer (LI-PO) batteries if they are older. But this type of technology He is starting to disrespect himself to the rise of new silicio carbon batteries.
The main difference with conventional lithium batteries is in the material used in the anode, which is the negative electrode. Instead of using a graphite anode, the new batteries use a silicon and carbon mixture For this element, which gives it greater capacity. In fact, in theory, silicon has a lithium storage capacity -up to 10 times higher than that of graphite.
This mobile of honor uses an innovative carbon silicon battery
That's to say, It is possible to make a battery with the same density as the old but with a smaller sizeuse Of the same size but put more storage capacity electricity. Or choose to use the two strategies at the same time, depending on what you want to prioritize when positioning a specific product on the market.
Carbon occurs because pure silicon develops and contracts considerably during loading and unloading cycles and could cause the degradation of the anode material, shortening the battery life. Creating a material with silicon and carbon is capable of containing the expansion of siliconforming a more stable structure. In addition, as carbon is a good driver of electricity, it does not pose any problems in the use of the battery.
Three great advantages
As can be intuated, one of the main advantages of this type of batteries is that Increase the energy storage densityBeing able to save more electricity, which would have to load our devices less than times. This can be an advantage in mobile phones, but also in other devices such as smartphones.
They can also be used to maintain the autonomy of various devices, but using less spacewhich involves design possibilities that are not seen before. For example, new fine mobiles that are expected this year 2025 could clearly benefit from this type of technology. A clear sample of this is the Oppo Find N5 that we have analyzed recently, which has a huge battery of 5,800 mAh despite just over 4 mm thick when deployed.
Oppo finds n5
The free android
Another advantage is that, since silicon facilitates the absorption and release of lithium ions, you can Get faster loading speeds. It is not clear that it harms the long -term battery as it happens with current lithium. But it could be the case because some studies suggest better heat management compared to lithium-ion batteries.
There are also drawbacks
Like any technology, carbon silicon batteries also have drawbacks. There is still no long -term analysis which explains what the Silicon behavior in terms of expansion. It is clear that carbon controls damage, but it is not known to what extent the sustainability of these batteries could be a little lower than that of the current.
As expected, because it is a new technology, Carbon manufacturing silicon can be more complex and costly than that of graphite anodes. This also affects that the economy of scale has not yet reached this type of batteries, although it is something that will be corrected in the medium term if they finally succeed.
Present and future
Despite the current limits, The advantages of this type of battery are higher than the risks. Many brands are betting on them because they make it possible to eliminate one of the problems of current mobiles: poor battery life. And, although the devices have already been reached for more than a day, if they want mobiles with two or three days of autonomy, we will have to bet on these batteries and not reduce the thickness.
However, it is also something important because Part of the failure of compact mobiles was for their low autonomy. Now, it is possible to create an adjusted size that does not have poor autonomy, by comparing them at least to the most sold mobiles in recent years.
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