Researchers at Samsung Electronics have developed a new technology that can almost double the capacity of lithium batteries to power smartphones and tablets, and could possibly be featured in the upcoming Galaxy Note 5 phablet.

The current lithium batteries were developed and commercialized by Sony in the 1990s, and despite some improvements over the years, a major technological problem shortens their life due to constant charging and discharging. Various research labs and universities across the world have been trying to solve the problem of low battery life, but have met with little success in recent years. Now according to Business Korea, researchers from Samsung Electronics have, "developed a technology to make a silicon cathode material for coating high crystal graphene on a silicon surface to realize an energy density almost two times more than that of existing lithium batteries. "

Samsung has developed the new coating method for battery cathodes by using an excellent conductive material called graphene, which is grown directly onto the silicon coating surface without silicon carbide formation. According to the researchers from Samsung, its new technology allows the full cell to achieve volumetric energy densities of 972 and 700 Wh l⁻¹ at first and 200th cycle respectively, after being paired with a commercial lithium cobalt oxide cathode. This is around 1.8 and 1.5 times greater than commercialized lithium ion batteries, which means that Samsung's new technology can almost double the capacity of lithium batteries used to power smartphones and other devices.

Samsung is rumored to introduce this high capacity battery in the Galaxy Note 5, or more likely the Samsung Galaxy S7, as it could take 2-3 years before the new battery technology becomes commercial, according to industry analysts. The high capacity battery inside Samsung's devices will not only position the company's products it way above its competitors, but also allow it to earn handsome revenues by licensing out the technology, given the hundreds of millions of devices sold every year.