According to new research published in the Advanced Energy Materials journal, batteries could charge in as little as 15 minutes and last for a week.
A team of scientists have created an electrode for lithium-ion batteries (such as those used in most smart phones), that allows them to hold 10 times more charge and charge 10 times quicker. They have achieved this, by adding silicon layers to the graphene sheets, that comprise an anode of an lithium-ion battery.
Harold H. Kung, professor of chemical/biological engineering in the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science and author of the groundbreaking journal said:
“Even after 150 charges, which would be one year or more of operation, the battery is still five times more effective than lithium-ion batteries on the market today.”
The reason the battery works so well is because, silicon can hold upto 4 lithium atoms for every silicon atom, whilst conventional carbon (which graphene is made of) can only hold one lithium atom for every 6 carbon atoms.
It seems that researchers have experimented with using Silicon to improve battery capacity before, but with little success, due to a phenomenon called "fragmentation". This caused previous silicon experiments to lose charge rapidly, as the silicon expanded and contracted.
They combated the inherant flaws of the material by sandwiching the silicon between sheets of graphene, which have 10-20 nm holes punched in them to allow the lithium ions to take a "shortcut" into the anode.
This is an exciting piece of research that will have far reaching applications, from feasible electric cars to high powered portable gaming, but the researchers work isn't over. They hope to further improve the batteries effectiveness by studying the cathode, and by implementing an electrolyte system that will allow the batteries to shut off in high temperatures, which will be an important safety feature.
Source: http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2011/11/batteries-energy-kung.html
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