Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, United States, have developed a three-dimensional nanostructure for battery cathodes that results in dramatically faster charging and discharging without sacrificing energy storage capacity. Such batteries are desirable for electric vehicles, medical devices, lasers and military applications. It could lead to phones that charge in seconds, or laptops that charge in minutes. According to Paul Braun, a professor of materials science and engineering, “This system that we have gives you capacitor-like power with battery-like energy. Most capacitors store very little energy. They can release it very fast, but they can’t hold much. Most batteries store a reasonably large amount of energy, but they can’t provide or receive energy rapidly. This does both.” Typical lithium-ion or nickel metal hybride rechargeable batteries degrade significantly when they are rapidly charged or discharged. Braun’s team wraps the thin film active material into a three-dimensional structure with small interconnects so the lithium ions can move rapidly. Braun is particularly optimistic about the batteries’ potential in electric vehicles. “If you had the ability to charge rapidly, instead of taking hours to charge the vehicle you could potentially have vehicles that would charge in similar times as needed to refuel a car with gasoline,” Braun said. “If you had five-minute charge capability, you would think of this the same way you do an internal combustion engine. You would just pull up to a charging station and fill up.” The team’s findings will be published this week in the journal Nature Nanotechnology. The article can be viewed online at the link below.
http://news.illinois.edu/news/11/0321batteries_PaulBraun.html