Scientists at Nangyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore have developed a new lithium-ion battery that can be recharged to 70 percent capacity in just two minutes. But that's not all: The battery also will have a lifespan of more than 20 years.
Commonly used in mobile phones, tablets and in electric vehicles, rechargeable lithium-ion batteries usually last about 500 recharge cycles. That is equivalent to two to three years of typical use, with each cycle taking about two hours for the battery to be fully charged. But in the new NTU-developed battery, the traditional graphite used for the anode (negative pole) in lithium-ion batteries is replaced with a new gel material made from titanium dioxide.
The NTU team found a way to transform the titanium dioxide into tiny nanotubes, which is a thousand times thinner than the diameter of a human hair. This speeds up the chemical reactions taking place in the new battery, allowing for superfast charging, researchers say. Read more