Bhubaneswar: Don’t recharge your cell phone till the battery level is below 20 per cent, advised Professor of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur, Siddharatha Das at an event held at SOA university here on Wednesday.
Das claimed that the battery’s life is affected if you “recharge it every now and then without checking whether it has come down to 20 per cent”. He explained that the tendency to put phone on charge even when the energy level is 60 or 70 per cent harms the battery’s life.
He also advised against speaking on the phone when it is being recharged, as it can cause the phone to explode.
Apart from him, Damodar Acharya, eminent academician and Chairman of the SOA Advisory Board, said that around 20 different rare minerals are used in making mobile phones and the availability of these is extremely limited. Lithium, the main component of batteries, is in short supply, he added.
Das also informed the gathering about the search for non-energy minerals to replace the energy minerals and develop Metal Air battery, Redox Flow battery and Lithium Sulphur battery.
In India, he said, renewable energy sources contributed to only 16 per cent of total energy generation compared to 92 per cent in Norway.
Professor Das’ research is in line with many international theories on battery charging, albeit with slight modifications. Android Authority had reported the following dos and don’ts with data from Battery University, an authority on Lithium batteries:
- Avoid full cycle (zero-100 per cent) and overnight charging. Instead, top-up your phone more regularly with partial charges.
- Ending a charge at 80 per cent is better for the battery’s life than a full 100 per cent.
- Use fast charging technologies sparingly and never overnight.
- Heat is the battery killer. Don’t cover your phone when charging and keep it out of hot places.
- Turn your phone off when charging, or at least don’t play games or watch videos to avoid mini-cycles.
However, with increasingly better battery management systems, some modern smartphone makers such as OnePlus claims that their battery is safe to charge while playing video games as well.
