An article today said using your phone battery below 20% and charging it routinely above 80% reduces battery life…what causes this and is it the same process at both ends of the range?
In: Physics
ELI5: Discharging a battery too deeply causes its structure too break down, increasing the potential for a short circuit. Overcharging has a similar effect, but can also result in the battery catching on fire. Discharging from 80-20 slows the breakdown.
Full Answer:
When discharged below its safe low voltage (exact number different between manufacturers) some of the copper in the anode copper current collector (a part of the battery) can dissolve into the electrolyte. The copper ions then in turn can stick on to the anode during charging by chemical reduction and cause dendrites. The dendrites might cause a short circuit inside the battery. So basically discharging too much is as bad as charging too much. But the dendrites caused by overcharging is formed out of lithium.
Normally the battery pack should have some sort of supervisory circuit that disconnects the cells from the charger or load when the cells are above or below the recommended voltages.
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