then just read this.... ????
I woke up today with an email from Hobby King simply titled…
The next evolution in battery technology
I like evolutions. They mean progress.
Ignoring the dozens of other emails I excitedly clicked through and saw that Turnigy had come out with an entire line of graphene lipo batteries.
Wait… what?
Last thing I heard about graphene was that it’s stupid expensive to manufacture. Even companies like Tesla, who would benefit massively from this technology, said it could be years before they’d jump on board because, like any company, they need to at least attempt to be profitable.
So what is this Graphene thing-a-ma-gig, anyways? (click to expand)
So I did a quick search and sure enough, they were talking about it a couple years ago…
While Musk has repeatedly made note of Tesla’s plans to build an affordable electric car, a battery even partly made of graphene would still make the car very expensive. Most Tesla Model S sedans cost about $100,000, but graphene is exorbitantly expensive at the moment, which means it would be difficult to produce a sub-$100,000 vehicle. So despite its benefits, the cost of graphene simply wouldn’t justify the cost of disrupting Tesla’s existing industrial processes to make way for this new material — at least for the immediate future.source
Okay, so that was all from 2014. What’s going on recently? Have things changed?
Maybe.
In November of 2015, researchers published the results of a study where they were able to produce high-quality sheets of graphene using a promising scalable route through chemical vapour deposition (CVD) of graphene on copper foils.
The foils they think are most promising for scalability and cost reduction are the same foils that are used for the production of lithium-ion batteries.source
But still…
This was published less than 2 MONTHS ago.
Could Turnigy have got their game plan together and whipped up a batch of batteries using this tech?
I don’t believe it’s likely. But impossible?
Let’s look at the facts.
#1: The Turnigy Graphene batteries are heavy.
Compared to the other 3s 1300mAh batteries on Hobby King, the Graphene batteries are at least 15g heavier & up to 27g at the most extreme.
3scomparison
On the 4s 1300mAh side, they are at least 10g heavier, and up to 35g.
Graphene Lipo
So sure, it’s heavier. Not too big a deal, right?
But why is it heavier?
Fact #2: Graphene is suppose to be lighter.
You’d think that with Turnigy replacing the separator between the positive and negative electrodes in their batteries with graphene they would save weight.
But nope, they got fatter.
Even when you compare it to another popular brand such as Rebel, their 3s 1300mAh with 50c rating and 100c burst weighs in at only 115g.
So with all else equal besides the “graphene”, there is a 22g difference!
Are Turnigy’s new graphene lipos on roids?
And last but not least, Fact number 3 is going to be posed as a question.
How come there are no other battery companies using graphene?
Maybe my research skills are straight garbage, but I can’t find a single one.
Someone had to be first, I guess. But Turnigy?
Using graphene in any manner to improve a process, a product, or anything at this point in time will increase costs despite the new research that the university boys just published.
It takes new manufacturing processes to be built at scale in order to even get things started.
That costs money and time.
Did they have insider information so that they were able to get these processes built in time to get their new batteries out so quickly?
On the other hand, maybe Turnigy’s 40-50% increase in price for their graphenes compared to some of their other models is evidence of these extra costs. But then again…
Maybe it’s all marketing.
Just like they are claiming a 15c charge rate. That’s 19.5 amps on a 1300mAh! Talk about fire hazard.
As far as I’m aware there isn’t even a charger out that can do that. Which means…
It gives them a competitive advantage (marketing) that no one can test, safely.
Seeing a trend?
I even reached out to a few of Turnigy’s competitors to get their take on the new battery — here’s a direct quote.
My suspicion is that they are using “GRAPHITE” as a carbon additive in the cell to reduce the internal resistance reading. Though that will look good on an at home cell test (increasing sales). It actually reduces the life of the battery as it’s a cheaper alternative to other carbon sources that stablizes IR far better.
Is it just a jealous competitor, or another red flag?
I can’t say for sure…
But before you jump on the hype train that is graphene, do your research and make sure your hard-earned money is going to a company that stands for more than just profits made from (possibly) unethical marketing.
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