New aluminium battery invention charges a phone in one minute

Scientists have designed a new battery made from aluminium that can be charged in under one minute.

The battery is both greener and safer, scientists have revealed.

Conventional alkaline batteries are bad for the environment while lithium-ion batteries used in millions of laptops and smartphones can unexpectedly burst into flames and take a long time to charge.

The first high-performance aluminium battery invented at Stanford University is fast-charging, long-lasting and inexpensive.

It is also flexible, meaning it can be used in new folding devices in development.

The only stumbling block is that it has just half the voltage of present lithium-ion batteries, the study published in the journal Nature revealed

The aluminum-ion battery consists of two electrodes; a negatively charged anode made of aluminum and a positively charged graphite cathode along with an ionic liquid electrolyte, inside a flexible polymer-coated pouch.

The electrolyte is basically a salt that’s liquid at room temperature, so it’s very safe. Lithium-ion batteries can be a fire hazard.

In the study, videos show that you can drill through the aluminium battery pouch, and it will continue working for a while longer without catching fire.

While lithium-ion battery can take hours to charge, the new battery has “unprecedented charging times” of down to one minute.

Unlike other prototypes which die after just 100 charges, the Stanford battery can withstand more than 7,500 cycles without any loss of capacity. A typical lithium-ion battery lasts about 1,000 cycles.

Via The Telegraph