The days of finding for power outlets to charge up your dying device could be coming to an end soon. Researchers at Stanford University has apparently developed a new battery that can be recharged in just one minute. This definitely gives “quick charging” a whole new meaning.
The battery is question uses aluminum-ion cells, which are much cheaper than the conventional lithium-ion batteries in modern devices. Turns out, the new battery “won’t catch fire, even if you drill through it,” said a Professor of Chemistry at Stanford. Seeing how devices can catch on fire or explode due to faulty batteries, this is quite an innovation.
More interestingly, the new battery is also flexible. Just like how the new Macbook Air has “terraced, contoured battery cells” in order to ensure that every single space is used efficiently, other manufacturers can take advantage of the flexible nature of this new battery to do the same as well.
That being said, we probably won’t be seeing this new battery hit retail devices anytime soon. As it is, the current prototype can only produce 2 volts, whereas conventional lithium-ion batteries are able to produce 3.6 volts. On top of that, it also has a lower energy density compared to lithium-ion batteries.
In any case, the Stanford University researchers are confident that these issues can be resolved in time. This new battery does sound promising, but until it goes out of the prototype stage, we wouldn’t hold our breath.
(Source: PCWorld; feature image: PhoneArena)
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