Scientists have created a battery that can be fully charged in 20 seconds
Battery breakthrough could cut recharging to seconds
/v3-uk/news/1976070/battery-breakthrough-cut-recharging
12 Mar 2009, Iain Thomson , V3
Scientists at MIT have developed a new design for lithium batteries that could cut recharge times down to seconds.
Traditional lithium batteries dispense power slowly, but also charge slowly because of perceived limitations in the lithium itself.
However, the team at MIT found that the problem lies not in the lithium, but in the substrate around it, according to a paper (PDF) published in Nature.
The team, led by Gerbrand Ceder, the Richard P. Simmons Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT, and Byoungwoo Kang, a graduate student in materials science and engineering, has created a battery that can be fully charged and discharged in under 20 seconds.
"The ability to charge and discharge batteries in a matter of seconds rather than hours may open up new technological applications and induce lifestyle changes," Ceder and Kang concluded in the paper.
The team believe that the new technology could be available in two or three years, because it is based around the commonly used lithium battery.
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Do you agree?
Rapid Charge Time
Some advanced battery developments will hinge around fast recharge rates but the MIT announcement is nothing new. Companies such as Altairnano have already demonstrated rapid lithium battery charge times for large scale projects. Previously the limiting factor was heat build up from the formation of an SEI layer. New technologies will be limited by the source power. MIT might be able to charge a little battery in seconds but charging a vehicle battery will still take hours at home or several minutes at a "recharge" station due to the available power.
A 16kWh pack such as the one for the Volt would take nearly 7 hours to charge from a standard 120V, 20amp wall outlet. Charging the same pack from a 240V, 50amp source would still take over an hour. I don't know about you, but where I live most homes don't have the available power to charge a battery pack in minutes, let alone seconds. Rapid charge times will be limited to industrial setting where large amounts of power can be supplied to ultra expensive inverter units.
Posted by Cory, 12 Mar 2009
Discharge in Seconds?
Charge in seconds sounds great, but discharge in seconds seems like a problem.
Posted by Nik, 12 Mar 2009
Euh?
I think what is meant is that the power can be discharged quickly if that amount of power is needed..
Posted by Pul5eh, 21 Mar 2009
supercapacitors
I remember reading several years ago about some fine folk at MIT who had developed a new way of producing supercapacitors which would charge in seconds and have almost the energy density of current batteries. I'm still waiting for those to show up. I get tired of hearing this stuff. Let me know when it is actually produced.
Posted by bob, 16 Jun 2009