A breakthrough in battery research might amplify the battery charging speeds of smartphones and laptops to a great extent. The new advancement might be able to charge smartphones and laptops in just 5 minutes.
A team from the University of Cambridge has designed a low-cost technique to look into lithium-ion batteries in a way that is never done before. The new method was published in the journal Nature and allows the team to identify the “speed limits” for charging cycles within batteries and then figure out ways to push them to their potential.
“We found that there are different speed limits for lithium-ion batteries, depending on whether it’s charging or discharging,” said Dr. Ashkay Rao, who led the research. “When charging, the speed depends on how fast the lithium ions can pass through the particles of active material. When discharging, the speed depends on how fast the ions are inserted at the edges. If we can control these two mechanisms, it would enable lithium-ion batteries to charge much faster.”
Low charging speed is a hurdle
Lithium-ion batteries can be found almost everywhere from portable devices to electric vehicles, though there are several factors that slow down the transition to a fossil-fuel-free world. Due to slow charge speed and low energy density, most users prefer alternatives such as petrol. Ramping up the energy transfer can cause the batteries to overheat and explode.
To tackle these hurdles and elevate the potential of lithium-ion batteries, the Cambridge researchers developed have built an optical microscopy technique dubbed interferometric scattering. This enabled the team to observe the phase transitions in the charge-discharge cycle and determine how fast it can be done.
Huge leap in battery research
Previous techniques to observe inner workings of these batteries required hefty and time-eating methods such as synchrotron X-ray or electron microscopy.
“This lab-based technique we’ve developed offers a huge change in technology speed so that we can keep up with the fast-moving inner workings of a battery,” said Dr. Christoph Schnedermann, co-author of the study.
“The fact that we can actually see these phase boundaries charging in real time was really surprising. This technique could be an important piece of the puzzle in the development of next-generation batteries.”
