Increased battery life - perhaps one of the most frequently stated wishes expressed by customers to the developers of mobile devices. Naturally, such a desire to be realized, the experts have to find a way to increase battery capacity, while try to do without a noticeable increase in their weight and dimensions.

In all likelihood, by scientists from Stanford University, we have another step closer to dream of a "long-running" mobile devices. These specialists have developed a new lithium-sulfur technology, allowing up to 80 per cent increase in battery capacity compared to conventional lithium-ion counterparts.

These batteries use a special anode of silicon nanowires created by the same team of scientists back in 2007, as well as the cathode with a similar lithium-sulfide nanostructure. It is reported that such a design makes batteries much safer than their lithium-ion counterparts, and, as mentioned above, significantly increases their capacity.

Unfortunately, on the road to commercial deployment of such lithium-sulfur batteries to overcome many more challenges. One of the key is the rapid destruction of the structure of the components used, resulting in such batteries can withstand only 40-50 cycles (yield lithium-ion batteries, recall, is from 300 to 500 cycles).