Why your earbuds stop working
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Yijin Liu, an engineering professor at the University of Texas, with a wireless earbud. Photo: Courtesy of University of Texas
An international team led by University of Texas researchers has gotten to the bottom of why the batteries in your wireless earbuds falter over time.
Why it matters: The degradation of batteries is a challenge that bedevils all sorts of electronics.
What they're saying: "This started with my personal headphones. I only wear the right one, and I found that after two years, the left earbud had a much longer battery life," Yijin Liu, an associate professor in the Cockrell School of Engineering who led the new research published in Advanced Materials, said in a statement.
- "So, we decided to look into it and see what we could find."
Between the lines: Liu explained to Axios that he uses only his right earbud because he listens to music in bed, to help him relax and fall asleep.
- "I sleep facing left and wearing the left earbuds is not comfortable as it pushes against the pillow," he said.
How it works: Researchers deployed X-ray, infrared and other imaging technologies to understand the complexities of all the technology packed into small electronics.
What they found: Other critical components in the compact device — like the Bluetooth antenna, microphones and circuits — clashed with the battery, creating a challenging microenvironment, per the research.
- This dynamic led to a temperature gradient — different temperatures at the top and bottom portions of the battery — that damaged the battery.
Zoom out: UT has long been at the forefront of battery research and development.
- The late John Goodenough was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 2019 for his work at UT developing lithium-ion batteries.
The bottom line: These findings, the researchers say, show how critical it is to figure out how batteries fit into devices from phones and laptops to vehicles — and to insulate them from potentially damaging components and to mitigate for the variation in users' habits.
- "Using devices differently changes how the battery behaves and performs," Guannan Qian, the first author of the paper and a postdoctoral researcher in Liu's lab, said in a statement. "They could be exposed to different temperatures. One person has different charging habits than another. And every electric vehicle owner has their own driving style. This all matters."