Scientists have developed a new graphene-based battery material with charging speed five times faster than today’s lithium-ion batteries.
The breakthrough by researchers at the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT) in South Korea provides promise for the next generation mobile batteries and electric vehicles.
Standard lithium batteries require charging time of at least an hour to fully charge, even with quick charging technology, so numerous attempts to explore new innovative materials have been started.
Among the materials looked at, graphene, a material with high strength and conductivity, has widely become the primary source of interest. In theory, a battery based on the “graphene ball” material requires only 12 minutes to fully charge, researchers said. This “graphene ball” was utilised for both the anode protective layer and cathode materials. This ensured an increase of charging capacity, a decrease of charging time as well as stable temperatures.
In the study published in the journal Nature Communications, researchers used graphene and mass synthesised it into a 3D form using silica (SiO2).
In the electronics field, supercapacitors are a useful device capable of storing up more than a hundred times more energy than standard capacitors. They can also work in low-temperature conditions and are regularly used as a replacement for electrochemical batteries.