Imagine an ultra-fast rechargeable battery that is also cheap
and lasts longer. Since it is made of aluminum, the new battery is a safer substitute
to conventional lithium-ion and alkaline batteries millions of us are using nowadays.
For decades, researchers have been observing aluminum (the same stuff in beer
cans and foils) as material for batteries: It is flexible, cheap, and has low
flammability and high-charge storage ability. But efforts to develop a
commercially feasible aluminum-ion battery have been unsuccessful. Like most
other batteries, these are encompassed of two electrodes: a negatively charged
anode (here, made of aluminum) and a positively charged cathode. The difficult
part has been finding the precise material for the cathode -- something proficient
of producing sufficient voltage after repetitive cycles of charging and
discharging.
Today, an international team led by Stanford’s
Hongjie Dai have unintentionally discovered a humble solution using graphite,
which is mainly carbon. They positioned a graphite cathode , aluminum anode and
an ionic liquid electrolyte (a salty liquid, essentially) in an elastic pouch covered
with a polymer.
The team hopes that their new batteries will take-over alkaline batteries, which
are hazardous for the environment, and lithium-ion batteries, which may
sometimes spurt into flames. Even though they are somewhat of a fire danger,
lithium-ion batteries are used in most of our laptops and smartphones. “Lithium
batteries can go off in a haphazard manner -- in the air or in your pocket,”
Moreover, they say their discovery battery is also ultra-fast charging and unbelievably
durable. Unlike the hours some of us is spending to recharge our phones, their
prototype has a charge time of 60 seconds. And it’s able to tolerate more than
7,500 charge-discharge cycles without mislaying its capacity. A usual
lithium-ion battery, for contrast, lasts about 1,000 cycles.
Regrettably, this new rechargeable aluminum battery will not
be ready for us sooner. For one thing, this battery produces about two volts of
electricity. While that is further than your everyday 1.5-volt AA and AAA
batteries, also as any other aluminum prototype thus far, that is only about
half the voltage of a typical lithium battery.
Watch the video below:
