Remember all those smoking cellphones?

Researchers think they've found a safer, long-lasting zinc battery that uses water-in-salt electrolytes that could prevent those electronic fires.。

University of Maryland researchers at the A. James Clark School of Engineering created a new water-based zinc battery that uses an aqueous electrolyte instead of the flammable substance in lithium-ion batteries. But to keep the batteries powerful and long-lasting the research team added metallic zinc and salt. 
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One of the paper's authors and postdoctoral associate at UMD's Clark School Fei Wang said in a release about the research, "We have a battery that could compete with the lithium-ion batteries in energy density, but without the risk of explosion or fire." 。

The breakthrough could have a huge impact on the consumer electronics industry. For example, the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 was recalled in 2016 after the phone kept exploding. Issues with the battery were discovered after conducting large-scale tests at manufacturing plants. The battery problems prompted an overhaul of its batteries for its next phone, the Galaxy S8. 。

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The team hopes this advancement could be used commercially and replace fire-prone lithium-ion batteries used in most consumer tech gadgets and products. 。

This aqueous zinc battery is rechargeable and high energy -- and unlike other zinc batteries, it doesn't need a water refill for the electrolyte. The team believes its found a way to get around zinc batteries' increasingly decreased charge capacity the more it gets charged. 。

In electric vehicles, lithium-ion battery improvements are a big research area. Belgian company Imec, is developing a nano-composite solid state electrolyte lithium-ion battery -- it starts as a liquid and later solidifies. 。

Like the UMD research team showed, wet batteries are preferred for safety and efficiency, but usually come at the cost of power and and charging capability. For EVs, solid-state batteries typically have low conductivity, which is bad news for charging. But the company hopes to invent a battery by 2024 that can charge up in 20 minutes and keep EVs driving long distances. 。 The zinc battery research published Monday in the journal 。The zinc battery research published Monday in the journal。