Create a battery that is charged in a minute – lanacion.com (Argentina)

The search for a more lasting battery that load faster, with greater autonomy and, above all, safer than current is frantic. Now a group of scientists from Stanford University seems to have taken a huge step forward, and it was mostly by chance.

Led by Hongjie Dai, a professor of chemistry at this university, and trying to build a better battery, discovered that if they made the cathode (the positive pole of the battery) with graphite anode (negative pole) with aluminum, the result was remarkable. Even with a lower voltage at its output, the prototype could be recharged in about a minute, bear it buckled and could even be drilled without catch fire, contrary to what might happen with batteries of cell and notebooks . Even more important, rather than degrade after about 1000 cycles of charge / discharge the new battery has a life of about 7500 cycles, which, according to researchers, would use it even in the grid.

Aluminum has long been a candidate for the manufacture of batteries. Graphite, however, was not in the original plans Stanford team. “They have tried many cathode materials. We discovered by accident that a simple solution is to use graphite, which is basically carbon. In our study, we identified a few types of graphite that give us very good performance,” says Dai in a report which appeared in the Stanford site the same day the paper was published in the web edition of the journal Nature (www.nature.com).

The batteries are long since Achilles heel mobility, and for several reasons. The principal, we all suffer daily, is autonomy. The battery Dai and his team does not improve this more hours, but if it is possible for a commercial device-that means not only a prototype of laboratory-load in about a minute, autonomy would be extended so indirectly; one minute, an outlet, and ready.

The second problem is that -the batteries lithium ion used in all domestic use of mobile devices in certain conditions may ignite spontaneously . It is no accident that happens every day, but potentially catastrophic. According to the researchers tested, its battery caught fire not only when pierced, but continued running a few minutes.

Another advantage of aluminum -always when you have an adequate- cathode is that It is flexible, an important dress computing data. However, Dai said that this technology is still in its infancy. .