New battery could charge your car or phone in minutes

Lithium-ion battery with same energy density as an electric car unit recharges to 80 per cent in less than 10 minutes

Eco-friendly batteries could replace standard lithium-ion batteries after a breakthrough by researchers at UNIST in South Korea (iStock/ Getty Images)

Scientists have set a new record for ultra-fast charging of lithium-ion batteries, which are found in everything from electric cars to smartphones.

A multinational team from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) and the University of California developed a new method that accelerated the recharge time of a battery with a similar energy density to those found in electric vehicles.

In just nine minutes, the 302 Wh kg battery was able to recharge 80 per cent of its energy, surpassing previously reported commercial lithium-ion batteries.

The charging method also did not impact the battery’s stability, which remained constant after more than 300 charge-discharge cycles.

The researchers described the new approach as a “paradigm shift strategy” that exploited a process known as electrocatalysis to radically improve the charging speeds.

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The research marks a major step towards developing high-energy, fast-charging batteries that could supercharge the transition to clean energy transportation.

A report by the International Energy Agency cited slow battery charging times as one of the top five barriers to electric vehicle adoption.

The latest research was detailed in a study, titled ‘Solid-State Electrocatalysis in Heteroatom-Doped Alloy Anode Enables Ultrafast Charge Lithium-Ion Batteries’, published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

It comes in the same week that researchers from Georgia Tech in the US reported a breakthrough while researching cathodes for lithium-ion batteries.

Using a “revolutionary material”, the team were able to build a battery suitable for use in electric vehicles at just a fraction of the cost of conventional lithium-ion batteries.

Hailong Chen, an associate professor at the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Georgia Tech, described the new cathode as a “game-changer”, adding that if implemented at scale it could “greatly improve the EV market– and the whole lithium-ion battery market.”