SCIENTISTS have discovered a way to make cheaper, lighter and more environmentally-friendly lithium batteries - the powerpacks inside laptops, mobile phones, camcorders and electric cars.
Lithium cells are seen as the most promising battery technology for the next generation of electronic appliances because they can store more than twice as much energy in the same size and weight as other batteries.
They were introduced in 1990, but are not widely used - mainly because of their high cost, but partially because they use toxic cobalt as the electrode. Robert Armstrong and Peter Bruce, research chemists at the University of St Andrews, have found a way of replacing cobalt with the cheaper and less toxic manganese.
In a report in the journal Nature, they describe how they have synthesised and tested a new material used as the electrode - a layered salt containing lithium and manganese.
However, the electronics giants that currently manufacture lithium batteries need not worry yet, says Dr Armstrong. He says that more work needs to be done to maximise the amount of energy the battery can retain on successive charges.
