Battery recharging in 10 seconds

Researchers from MIT have received a new material for the cathode of lithium-ion batteries, which accelerates the charging of batteries by 100 times, writes the journal Nature . According to preliminary estimates, a normal laptop battery can be charged in less than 10 seconds.

The discovery came from an unexpected side. The fact is that before scientists could not understand what caused the low rate of movement of lithium ions between the electrodes and, consequently, slow battery charging. Additional studies have shown that the problem is in their route: in the experiment with the salt crystal LiFePO ₄ (in the photo, the material was opened five years ago), specific entry and exit points of ions were clearly visible.

Scientists decided to change the material properties for the cathode. They experimented with fractions of phosphorus and iron, and the resulting mixture for ten hours was kept at 600 ° C under argon. As a result of heating, ideal salt balls with a diameter of about 50 nm were obtained with a coating of a thin film (5 nm), similar to glass. Under normal conditions, the material proved to be normal, but when the charge was increased from 2 to 200 pendants, the electrolyte capacity, although decreased, but the charging speed increased a hundred times. With an increase to 400 pendants, it has doubled to the indicators that were previously observed only in superconductors.
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In principle, batteries with new cathodes can be made right now. But there is a big problem with huge losses of energy in the process of charging, which make this technology so far exceptionally wasteful. So, when charging a standard phone battery, a huge part of the energy goes into heat, that is, the battery heats up very much, and this is unacceptable in real conditions.