Hello there, are you looking for an article that explains the effects of heat on smartphone batteries? Well you’re in the right place. Let’s do something very very quick. Let’s talk about how heat destroys smartphone batteries.
So someone messaged me and asked how does heat affect batteries in particular? Basically he’s asking what is it that heat does that makes battery go bad? Ok so this one shouldn’t take long at all.
If you look at a battery’s structure, you’ll see that it’s mostly made of metals, wire and chemical paste.
The chemical is the main ingredient of the battery as it is what holds the current. The very current that the battery supplies which powers up your phone.
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How heat destroys smartphone batteries
Like most chemical substances, this chemical (electrolyte paste) is sensitive to heat. When you apply heat to many substances it’ll cause them to change their physical form and even produce new substances.
When you expose a battery to prolonged heat, the chemical starts to release gases and it also hardens. This is what translates into a swollen battery.
This will cause many electrolytes to go missing or become lost as they may be used in the chemical changes that the battery electrolyte is undergoing. This will greatly reduce battery capacity.
As if that’s not bad enough, the electrolyte usually ends up corroding the metals, that is the anode and cathode on the battery making them unable to transmit electrons.
If their ability or capacity to transmit electrons is hindered, it means that the battery would be unable to charge properly or it would be unable to deliver current to the phone.
This is why phones with bad batteries take forever to charge and/or trip off for no reason at all.
Even if they don’t go off, they’ll discharge very fast and still end up going off. You’ll spend 3 hours charging a phone full only for it to drain in 1 hour +. True story guys. True story.
In Summary
Heat or hot environment causes batteries to undergo chemical changes which do the following:
- Corrodes metal terminals
- Changes the physical state of electrolyte paste
- Causes the release of gases which makes the batteries to swell up.
The effects are:
- Corroded battery terminals which makes charging longer
- Reduced battery capacity due to lost electrons
- Reduce uptime for smartphone due to poor battery capacity
To avoid this:
- Keep your phone cool
- Avoid charging whilst it’s hot
- Avoid heavy use whilst charging
- Protect your phone from hot environments. Anything over 40°C is a no no.
That’s it. Cheers and enjoy your device.
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