We all want the battery power in our smartphones and tablets to last longer. That said there is a limit to how large a battery can be and how much power can be crammed into that battery. On the other side of the coin to get our device to last longer are batteries that charge faster. If your battery is only good for most of a day’s use, but it can recharge in minutes it’s a bit more bearable.
Scientists at Stanford University have discovered a new type of aluminum-ion battery that has the impressive ability to be able to charge fully in about a minute. According the researchers they accidentally discovered a cathode made of graphite gave the best performance in the aluminum-ion battery.
That is a great discovery in that the battery charges very fast, but also because the materials used to make the battery are cheaper than the lithium-ion material required to make current generation batteries. The new battery is also able to survive 7500 charge cycles, which is a vast improvement over the 100 cycles other aluminum-ion batteries can withstand.
The aluminum-ion batteries 7500 charge cycles is also vastly superiors than the 1000 cycles that lithium-ion batteries can survive. The catch for now is that the battery is a long way from being commercially viable. Right now, it only produces 2V, which is considerably less voltage than lithium-ion batteries produce. It also produces only 40 watts per kilogram, which pales next to the 100 to 260 watts per kilogram that lithium-ion batteries produce.
SOURCE: SlashGear
