Researchers at Stanford University are claiming that they have developed a battery which can offer extremely fast charging. In fact, there is the claim that a battery can be fully charged in less than a minute. Such technology would prove extremely useful to an industry where battery life is becoming an increasing issue. In terms of the new technology being developed, the Stanford researchers detail that the real magic behind the batteries lies in the decision to replace lithium-ion cells with Aluminium-based ones.
According to the researchers, there are a number of benefits being seen thanks to the inclusion o f the aluminium-ion cells. Firstly, it is far cheaper than the more traditional lithium-ion cells. Secondly, the newly designed battery is far safer than the standard lithium-ion options. According to the researchers, the aluminium based options are not flammable and therefore not as prone to catching fire as the lithium-ion batteries. Not to mention that the new battery seems to be able to withstand 1000s of recharge cycles without seeing any drop in performance. The battery also seems to offer the option to be more bendable than current battery offerings, due to the inclusion of the aluminium as well as graphite cathodes and ionic fluid electrolytes. In fact, their only main downside at present is that they register a lower than typical voltage and energy density than lithium-ion options. Although, the researchers do expect these to be improved upon in later editions.
Battery life is one of the continued issues for smartphone owners. Higher resolution displays coupled with high functional processors are placing great strains on devices. As such, being able to charge a device in as quick as one minute might alleviate the stresses placed on companies to developer bigger capacity batteries. However, this is not the first or only research currently underway in terms of batteries. Other researchers were recently reported to be working on anode-less batteries while different research again seems to be focusing on the makeup of batteries and rearranging how their components are arranged. Either way, it seems the next generation of batteries might look and act very differently to the lithium-ion based ones we currently use.