Samsung recently made headlines after it recalled its freshly released Galaxy Note7 smartphone in the wake of reports of dozens of its phones exploding, obviously risking the lives of its user in process.
However, the question is why these batteries explode in the first place. The answer may surprise you, as one might simply suggest that the exploding battery is all fault of the manufacturer, however, the bigger answer is that the ever improving technology itself is turning battery into tiny explosive.
As per the Verge, manufacturers have nearly reached the theoretical maximum efficiency for lithium-ion batteries, the most commonly used battery in smartphones. The manufacturers in order to become more competitive in the market, continues to stretch the limits of what could be "safe".
“There’s been a bit of an arms race where every manufacturer of a smartphone wants to get the highest battery life,” says Lynden Archer, a materials scientist at Cornell University. “This trend in the field is producing more and more of a tendency for overcharging so all these models of failure are becoming more commonplace,” he added.
Batteries also turn into explosives when charged too much too quickly, as previously acts of charging overnight is dangerous for the phone’s battery. The other reason why batteries turn dangerous when manufacturers try to make them store more power by increasing voltage. This higher voltage combine with the unstable electrolytes, makes them catch fire, as well.
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