Frontier and Kansai double cellular battery life

Advanced Battery Technology, Aug 2003

The Nikkei Weekly reports that Frontier Carbon Corp. has teamed up with Kansai Coke and Chemicals Co. to develop technology to nearly double the battery life of cellular phones by incorporating fullerene carbon molecules.

Frontier Carbon, which was set up by Mitsubishi Chemical Corp., Mitsubishi Corp. and Nanotech Partners Ltd., has added fullerenes to the electrodes of capacitors for cell phones and notebook computers jointly with Kansai Coke, a Mitsubishi Chemical affiliate. This will be the first major commercial application of nanomaterial.

These capacitors are used when the devices consume large amounts of electricity. If cell phone users snap pictures or exchange e-mail with handsets, they need to recharge batteries after two to three hours of use. The fullerene-containing capacitor can extend the battery life by four to six hours.

Kansai Coke will produce the fullerene-containing electrode material and sell it to electronic appliance makers. It started sample shipments this summer.

On the supply side, Frontier Carbon recently opened a plant in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan, which can produce 40 metric tons of fullerenes a year. The new plant is expected to help further reduce fullerene prices, which have fallen to Y500,000 per kilogram from Y5 million several years ago.

Mitsubishi hopes to popularize the new nanotechnology with a two-pronged strategy of providing supply and creating demand. The company is developing a wide variety of applications for fullerenes in products such as cosmetics, medicines, and fuel cells. It plans to launch several units specializing in nanotech development by the end of 2003.