Applying 'extreme heat' to lithium-ion batteries reportedly restores their capacity, and I think it's the sustainable tech breakthrough of 2025

Cue dumbasses tossing their iphones in the toaster oven in 3... 2...

Sure. But we need to see pics, or it didn't happen.

The abstract doesn't mention them re-gaining their old capacity. It only says they shrink. And something about voltage. So I have my doubts. I mean it's nice if my spicy pillow shrinks a bit. But what does that help if it continues to stay nearly dead? And an application in products would be hard to accomplish. At that temperature, all the plastic etc is going to melt. Maybe the solder as well.

Oh boy! Idiot TikTok kids is going to start microwaving devices.

I hope this article is well peer-reviewed. Otherwise this reads as if some LLM came up with the idea

This title is pretty bad, the paper focus is in designing new battery technologies not magically restoring capacity on the batteries we have today.

Is this before or after they reach the spicy pillow stage?

brb, putting e-bike battery in oven

I tried it on my car but it doesn't turn on anymore. Deceiving news

Sounds like "microwave to charge" for the modern era.

Warning: heating earbuds batteries to over 300F also causes fires

Reading this tells me the author has absolutely 0 idea of how physics work and is nothing but a blogger of consumer grade equipment. People like that should refrain from trying to understand how science or scientists work.

Sounds like a horrible idea if not carefully controlled. Perhaps up to 80 degrees in an oil bath could redissolve some of the electrolytes. I guess it could work. Anything above 100 is asking for trouble.

brb chucking my batteries in the oven

it's a cheap and easy thrill

Yes but how can shareholders profit from this??

In the good ol' days when I ran out of battery and every charger had a different stupid little connector, I often put my phone on the window still or heater to get a little bit of juice to do what I needed to do.

I guess I am a scientist.

Important note near the end of the article - they aren't saying we should cook batteries really -

"The team's hypothesis is that the structural disorder developing inside LIBs may become a “tunable parameter” that, if tweaked using chargers at precise voltages to alter said battery composition, could be used to rejuvenate the batteries in our tech without fires."

This is a good old idea that goes back to the days of desulfating lead batteries with powerful shocks of high-amperage current. Might just need a special Healing Charger that applies the right voltage/current to dissolve the bad crystals in lithium-ion systems

How does heat mitigate the dendrites? Also doesn't extreme heat damage the batteries? They barely hold up under high temperatures as-is.

this feels like bait

so putting batteries in the fridge wasn't useful after all, we should put them in the oven

Neat! So if I put my phone in the microwave it will reset the battery?

Reminds me of the old days of putting my LG G4 in the freezer

Oven, 450?

Wait, nobody came up with this before?

Thanks, climate change.