You may have noticed that in cold weather it seems that your phone’s battery is draining faster. Or the batteries of your smoke detector suddenly need to be replaced in the winter. Does that have to do with cold?
It’s not the battery draining faster, it’s the chemical reaction caused by the cold. That explains Petra de Jongh, professor of Catalysts and Materials for Sustainable Energy at the University of Utrecht, out to NRC. It has to do with the commuting between two poles, a positive pole and a negative pole. Lithium ions normally like to be on the positive side and when you charge the battery they are forced to go to the negative side. Is your battery charged or have you stopped charging? Then the lithium ions go to the positive side again.
From cold to warm
The colder it gets, the slower the lithium ions shuttle back and forth. Your phone can suddenly shut down from a full battery. If you then go to a warm room, turn the phone on again. Then you may have an almost full battery when you turn it on again.
Unfortunately, there is little you can do about this phenomenon. The reaction of the lithium ions cannot be reversed faster than by (slowly) heating the phone.
Source: NRC.nl
