Self-healing batteries: Just-in-time repair

We all know the drill: You use your mobile device -- phone, tablet, laptop -- for a few years, then the battery dies and you have to replace it. Or you drop the device, the battery shorts out and you have to replace it even sooner.

And if a device isn't designed to allow the user to replace the battery himself ( and and other tablets are notorious for this), there's the extra hassle and expense of shipping the whole thing back to the manufacturer to swap out the battery.

But scientists at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have a better idea. Researchers led by professor Scott White are looking to extend the useful life of batteries in mobile devices, and they've figured out a way for the battery to fix itself, probably without the user ever knowing there was a problem.

Whether it's in a mobile phone or a notebook, a lithium-ion battery releases electricity by moving electrons from the lithium-based cathode to the cell's anode. The flow is reversed when you plug the device into a power source to charge the cells up for another cycle.