Fast charging batteries could revolutionize electronics

Fast charging batteries could revolutionize electronics

Researchers test super-efficient and fast charging batteries.

Consumers love modern electronics, with laptops, smart watches, tablets and many other portable devices used for entertainment, business, and more. But many consumers and electronics makers have long been frustrated by battery power that limits the usefulness of the devices.

Now one company is making inroads into a battery that could revolutionize the electronics industry. The Chinese telecommunications equipment company Huawei Technologies has developed prototypes of new smartphone batteries that can be recharged to nearly half of their capacity in just five minutes, according to Computerworld.

The Watt Lab division of Huawei created the new batteries and has released two online videos to demonstrate and explain the technology. The company announced the prototypes at a tech industry conference last week in Japan. The batteries use conventional lithium ion chemistry that powers current batteries, but the addition of atoms of graphite that are bound to the anode makes for the rapid recharging.

The company says that the technology allows for faster charging without sacrificing the lifespan of the battery or the battery’s storage capacity. The capacity of one of the new batteries is 3,000 milliampere hours (mAh), about the same as most smartphone batteries in use today. In five minutes, the battery can be recharged to 48 percent of its capacity. The second prototype holds only 600 mAh of power, but can be charged to 68 percent capacity in just two minutes.

The company says that the batteries have been tested for maintaining their chargeability and that the tests show that they can be recharged multiple times.

Huawei does not have a timetable for commercial introduction of the batteries. For now, the prototypes are not small enough to fit inside a call phone.

There have been several advances in battery technology just this year, with companies racing to develop new and more efficient ways to store electricity with faster charging or longer lasting devices. Battery technology is not only a limiting factor in consumer electronics but also in the electric car industry and in the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy. Storing electricity from solar and wind power’s peak production times may be key to making those industries feasible as fossil fuel replacements.

Just last week, scientists from Vanderbilt University announced their experimental batteries that use quantum particles of iron pyrite, also called fool’s gold, in making a fast-charging lithium ion battery. Stanford Researchers also recently unveiled their fast-charging battery that uses aluminum-ion cells.

Be social, please share!

Facebooktwittergoogle_plusredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail