Thursday 16 August 2012

New 'Carbonised' batteries could charge in seconds

We all love using our shiny gadgets as much as possible, from tweeting on the bus to catching up on Breaking Bad in your lunch our. But do you know what we don't love quite as much? Charging them.

Yes, waiting all night hours for that big power-hungry iPad of yours to fill up could soon be a thing of the past, thanks to new developments in battery technology. The discovery could mean batterys which charge in minutes or even seconds, not hours.

Gizmodo explains the problem with standard lithium-ion batterie

The way current li-ion batteries are made, they have conductors feeding the charge-holding particles held within the cell. The problem is that the charge is deposited from the outside in, as the charge-holding section in the middle isn’t directly exposed to any current.

The solution discovered is to instead coat and permeate the entire battery in conductive materials, interwoven with conductors, so that the whole thing can start charging at the same time. This is achieved by placing the batteries in a graphite solution, so that carbon can soak deep into the battery cell.

The results are astounding. Scientists undertaking the research have claimed that recharge time has been cut by 30 times, and in some cases as much as 120 times! That would mean you could charge your phone in seconds, but it would also be a huge leap forward for electric cars, which typically take hours to recharge.

According to Giz, the only downside to these new batteries is a slight increase in size and weight. But I'm sure you all have huge gadget-muscles from carrying around that obese iPad 3 anyway, don't you?

FROM GIZMODO