Chinese scientists develop fast-charging battery

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According to local media, a team of Chinese scientists have developed a new type of aluminum-graphene battery which can be fully charged in seconds.

Developed by researchers from the Department of Polymer Science and Engineering of Zhejiang University, the new battery, which uses graphene films for the anode and metallic aluminum for the cathode, can work well after quarter-million cycles and keep a 91.7-percent retention, “surpassing all the previous batteries in terms of rate capability and cycle life,” as said in the research thesis published on Science Advances on December 15.

It means that if this battery were to be used in a smartphone, the lifespan could be extended to almost 70 years, even if it is charged 10 times per day.

The LED light "ZJU120" powered by the aluminum-graphene battery /Photo via Weibo of Zhejiang University

In quick charge mode, it only takes 1.1 seconds to fully charge the new battery.

The battery also features great resistance to low and high temperature, maintains sound operation with a range from -40 degrees Celcius to 120 degrees Celcius, and it has remarkable flexibility, as it is able to retain the original capacity after being folded 10,000 times.

The battery won't burn under high temperature. /Photo via Weibo of Zhejiang University

Challenges remaining for commercialization

However, more efforts and input are needed from scientists to commercialize the aluminum-graphene battery, said Gao Chao, lead researcher.

This new battery cannot be comparable to the commonly-used lithium-ion one in terms of energy density which measures the amount of power that can be stored in a battery per unit volume. The expensive costs of the electrolytes is another factor making commercial production more difficult, according to Gao.

If the battery could be applied to mobile phones, the selling point for Chinese mobile phone brands could be “five seconds of charge, two hours of calls.”