Superfast Batteries

While many people are researching how to improve battery energy density, one research group at MIT has discovered a way to create lithium batteries with incredible charge and discharge speeds. By creating a new surface coating for the batteries that allows extremely fast charge transfer at the electrode/electrolyte interface, the researchers have create batteries that have charge times that would be equivalent to charging your cell phone in a minute or less. The best part is that this technology, unlike supercapacitor (the only other device that can achieve such high discharge rates), is that it is designed to work with lithium batteries, and can achieve an energy density that is much higher than any supercapacitor. And while energy density is a major hurdle for the use of batteries in many applications, such as electric cars, the discharge rate of the batteries is also a serious concern. The new batteries would allow for better acceleration in electric cars, one of the major issues in the performance of the cars. The batteries could also seriously change our daily lives, by allowing us to charge cell phones and laptops in minutes, not hours, and could open up a whole new class of machinery using the new ultra fast discharge batteries.

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v458/n7235/edsumm/e090312-05.html