New Type of Lithium-Ion Battery: More Powerful, Charges Faster, Lasts Longer

[Jonathon Watkins]

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7081

"A rechargeable battery that can be fully charged in just 6 minutes, lasts 10 times as long as today's rechargeables and can provide bursts of electricity up to three times more powerful is showing promise in a Nevada lab. . . . The crystalline surface of a carbon anode is susceptible to damage by the repeated temperature changes that occur as the battery is used and recharged. This limits its life to around 400 charging cycles. The more rugged lithium titanate anode should make it possible to recharge the battery as many as 20,000 times."

OK, so this new kind of lithium-ion battery provides larger currents, gives more power per volume, charges quicker and has a far longer lifespan. It seems that the only possible drawback may be price. ;-) Altair Technologies hope to license the technology to major battery makers, who could have devices on the market within two years. The sooner the better really. We need it.

[Jonathon Watkins]

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7081

"A rechargeable battery that can be fully charged in just 6 minutes, lasts 10 times as long as today's rechargeables and can provide bursts of electricity up to three times more powerful is showing promise in a Nevada lab. . . . The crystalline surface of a carbon anode is susceptible to damage by the repeated temperature changes that occur as the battery is used and recharged. This limits its life to around 400 charging cycles. The more rugged lithium titanate anode should make it possible to recharge the battery as many as 20,000 times."

OK, so this new kind of lithium-ion battery provides larger currents, gives more power per volume, charges quicker and has a far longer lifespan. It seems that the only possible drawback may be price. ;-) Altair Technologies hope to license the technology to major battery makers, who could have devices on the market within two years. The sooner the better really. We need it.

[Anjuan Simmons]

Although this technology is obviously in the hype stage, I hope that it or something else removes one of the major drawbacks of mobile devices today: battery life. The company that can produce a battery that allows a laptop, cell phone, PDA, music player, et al, run for days between charges and fully recharge in a matter of minutes (at a reasonable price point) will be King of the Mobile Hill.

[stayputnik]

Cool! I actually submitted this story... I was wondering if it would make the headlines! :mrgreen:

Can't wait until these things hit the mainstream. Might help the X50V last more than 2 hours at a time... :roll:

[PBR]

Originally Posted by stayputnik

Cool! I actually submitted this story... I was wondering if it would make the headlines! :mrgreen:

Can't wait until these things hit the mainstream. Might help the X50V last more than 2 hours at a time... :roll:

Ditto !

[Jason Dunn]

This is one of the more realistic battery technologies to be announced in recent years, because it's essentially a chemical "tweak" rather than being a completely new approach to batteries (a la fuel cells). And although this article doesn't mention it, another one said that the company can produce this technology for the same coast as current LiIon batteries.

This could be very, very big.

[bluevolume]

This doesn't do much for all that stock I bought in those di-lithium crystal mines.....

[Jonathon Watkins]

Originally Posted by Jason Dunn

This is one of the more realistic battery technologies to be announced in recent years, because it's essentially a chemical "tweak" rather than being a completely new approach to batteries (a la fuel cells).

I did toy with calling this news post "Incremental Improvements Leads to Better Batteries". It's good to know that we could see this very soon and at a decent price.

Originally Posted by Jason Dunn

This could be very, very big.

Or lead to batteries that are very, very small. ;-)