Zoomi Life

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed battery cells capable of taking on a charge in under a minute, which is a rate 100 times faster than standard rechargeable batteries.

Byoungwoo Kang and Gerbrand Cedar figured out how to get a common lithium compound to release and take up lithium ions in seconds.  The compound is the lithium iron phosphate found in many li-ion batteries common to electric vehicles, which means that this charging system could be on the market in as little as two years.

The crystalline structure of lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) is particularly well-suited to fast charging due to it’s “perfectly sized tunnels for lithium to move through,” says Cedar.  What Kang and Cedar have done is facilitate a faster way for the ions to find their way to these “express tunnels” by coating the cathode with a thin layer of LiFePO4 glass.

This cathode can charge and even discharge in as little as 9 seconds, though the long-term viability of this as a sustained modus is being tested now.  The team is sure that testing will vet it out and prove it’s viability as a battery build.

The complete information on this breakthrough is listed in the journal Nature.  The two researchers believe that there are probably more battery materials that will work in much the same way to receive this ultra-fast charging improvement.

Source: Gas2