Hey there, power hungry people, I’m Jules, here for DNews.

嗨，各位求電若渴的朋友們大家好，我是 DNews 的朱爾斯。

Smartphone batteries suck.

智慧型手機電池爛透了

Actually, all commercial batteries suck, and that’s kind of a big problem.

事實上，所有商用型的電池都很爛，而且這是一個滿大的問題

Every new smartphone iteration seems to have twice the megapixels, three times the storage space,

每一支新推出的手機似乎都會有兩倍高的畫素、三倍大的儲存容量、

no headphone jack, and… barely better battery life.

沒有耳機插孔，然後......只有好一點點的電池續航力

And that battery life isn’t even guaranteed.

而且那還不是保證一定會有的續航力

On an average smartphone, the lithium-ion battery is generally expected to last between 300 and 500 charge cycles,

以一支普通的智慧型手機來說，它的鋰電池至少要能夠充放電三百至五百次循環，

and many of us do go through an entire charge cycle every single day.

而對大部分的我們來說，我們幾乎每天都會充放電一個循環

So the fact is, smartphone batteries aren’t really meant to stay fully functional for more than a year.

所以實際上，手機電池的設計並不能維持其功能良好，超過一年的時間

The problem comes from the fact that since the late 1970s,

問題的根源在於，自從 1970 年代末期以來，

there hasn’t really been a revolutionary commercial breakthrough in battery technology.

電池技術在商用領域裡就一直沒有革命性的突破了

Nearly all rechargeable modern batteries work by creating electrical current from the movement of lithium ions between electrodes,

幾乎所有充電式的現代電池，都是透過鋰離子在正負極間移動來產生電流

and for this purpose, lithium is amazing.

而就以這種目的來說，鋰是最驚人的材質

It’s the least dense metal and has the highest energy-to-weight ratio of comparable metals.

鋰是密度最小的金屬，也是擁有最高能量重量比的金屬

So when we made the shift from chunks of lead floating in acid to slick smooth lithium as a source of storable energy,

所以當我們把可儲存能量的來源，從泡在酸液中的大鉛塊，改成光滑平順的鋰金屬，

batteries became portable and lightweight.

電池變得更好攜帶也更輕了

It was an amazing breakthrough and changed consumer electronics irrevocably…

這是一個驚人的突破，也就此改變了消費性電子產品...

but that was 30 years ago.

但...那已經是三十年前的事了。

Today, we still use those same batteries.

直到今天，我們仍然使用一樣的電池

But that’s not to say that battery life isn’t getting better, and sometimes in unexpected ways.

不過也不能說電池續航力沒有在進步，只是有時會以意想不到的方式呈現

Just this year, the iPhone 7 Plus came out with about an hour more battery life than the iPhone 6S Plus.

就在今年 (2016)，蘋果的 iPhone 7 Plus 正式推出，電池續航力比 iPhone 6S Plus 多了近一個小時

But the battery capacity is only a tiny bit larger.

不過電池容量只有多出那麼一點點

The trick is that what we call “battery life” is actually capacity divided by consumption, and while capacity is stagnant, power consumption is not.

關鍵就在於，我們所說的「電池續航力」是真實的電容量除以消耗量，容量是不變的，但能源消耗量則相反

The new iPhone processor chip uses only two-thirds as much power as the previous iteration,

相較於上一個版本，新 iPhone 的處理器只需使用舊版本三分之二的電力

while reportedly increasing performance by 40%.

但是根據報告指出，效能卻能提升百分之四十

Basically, the less power your phone uses, the better its battery life, without making any substantial changes to the battery itself.

基本上來說，你的手機使用越少的能源，那你的電池續航力就越好，所以電池本身不需要有太大的改變。

Every year, computers and smartphones are able to do more with less.

所以每一年，新的電腦和智慧型手機都能夠以小改進帶來大改變

But that doesn’t quite solve the bigger problem: batteries wear out and become useless pretty quickly.

但是這並不完全解決那個最大的問題：電池壽命太短，而且很快就沒用了

According to Apple, on their Macbooks, after about 1000 cycles,

根據蘋果提供的資料，Macbook 的電池在使用超過一千次循環後

you’re left with only about 80% of the battery’s original capacity, maybe less, and it only gets worse from there.

大概只會剩百分之八十左右的電池容量，甚至更少。而且狀況只會越來越糟

To solve this seemingly unavoidable issue, researchers from University of California,

為了解決這個似乎無法避免的問題，加州大學爾灣分校的研究員

Irvine accidentally invented a battery that never dies.

意外地發明一種永不衰退的電池

Well, seemingly never.

至少看起來是永不衰退

Apparently, a doctoral candidate in their research lab was fooling around, and as we all do for fun, she coated a set of gold nanowires in manganese dioxide, and then sealed them in an electrolyte gel.

很顯然地，一位博士生在研究室裡無所事事，就像我們喜歡找樂子一樣，她在一組黃金奈米線上塗上二氧化錳，然後把它封在電解質凝膠中

Hahaha, oh those scamps!

哈哈哈，噢這些小淘氣！

Manganese!

錳耶！

The trick is that nanowires conduct electricity very very well, and have a large surface area to store and transfer electrons.

秘訣就在於，奈米線的導電效果非常好，而且有很大的表面積儲存與移動電子

But these wires are also SUPER fragile, and they tend to break down after use.

但是這些線卻也「超級」脆弱，使用過後似乎都會斷掉

But coating the wires seems to have solved this major problem.

不過，將奈米線塗上一層塗料，似乎解決了這個最大的問題

In the lab, this mini-battery went on to experience 200,000 charge cycles.

在實驗室裡，這個迷你電池經歷過二十萬次的充放電循環

That's roughly 500 times more than the expected optimal lifecycle of a lithium-ion battery,

而這樣的生命週期，大概是一顆理想狀態下的鋰電池，其最佳週期的五百倍，

while still operating between 94 and 96 percent efficiency.

然而迷你電池仍保有百分之九十四至九十六的放電效率

Even after three months, the normally super-fragile wires were still fully functional.

即便經過三個月的測試，這段應該是超級脆弱的線路，卻仍維持良好的運作

Although its in the early research stage, scientists think this battery could last up to 400 years.

雖然這還在初期的實驗階段，但是研究者相信這顆電池能夠至少有近四百年的壽命

But your smartphone is still gonna die within a few years,

不過你的智慧型手機依然會在幾年後掛掉

and that's because it's using technology from the 1970s.

因為我們還在使用 1970 年代的電池科技

It's optimized, but obsolete.

它是有進步，但是已經過時了

A number of tech groups have developed small scale solutions,

許多技術團隊已經開發出小規模的解決方案，

a combination of which may prove to be the next big battery breakthrough, but as for now, most solutions are impractical

這些組合都可能會是電池下一個重要的突破。但是直到現在，大部分的方案仍不實用

due to cost, longevity, and most importantly, safety.

原因在於成本、壽命以及最重要的安全性

New batteries need to be tested for a long time before they’re introduced on the market.

新型的電池在導入市場前，需要經過常時間的測試

Just look at the Note 7.

看看三星 Note 7 的下場吧！

For now, it looks like battery life will continue to suck.

以目前來說，電池續航力似乎還會繼續爛下去

If you’re into finding out what makes things tick, like what’s in your electronics,

如果你對了解事情背後的原理有興趣，像是你的電子產品，

you’re probably like me and love the show How It’s Made.

你或許會喜歡我和節目「製造的原理」。

Now you can watch this and other Science Channel shows on the Science Go App!

現在你可以在 Science Go App 上收看這個節目以及其他科普頻道！

Check it out and download for free at your local App Store.

快上你的 App Store 瞧瞧，現在免費下載

And if you want to know more how different types of batteries work in detail,

然後，如果你還想知道更多不同型態電池的運作細節，

Trace has a video all about that here!

這部的影片有完整的介紹！

Is battery life your biggest phone complaint?

電池續航力是最困擾你的手機問題嗎？

What other phone improvements do you want to see?

你還想看到手機在哪方面的進步呢？

Let us know down below in the comments and don't forget to like and subscribe for more

在底下的留言告訴我們，也別忘了按讚及訂閱更多

videos everyday.

每天的影片