18th April 2013

Batteries that recharge 1,000 times faster and are 30 times smaller

Researchers at the University of Illinois have developed a new type of battery that could revolutionise the way consumer electronics and electric vehicles are powered.

Led by William King, the Bliss Professor of mechanical science and engineering, the researchers published their results in Nature Communications. They describe a new class of "microbatteries" which owe their high performance to an internal three-dimensional microstructure.

"The thinking parts of computers have gotten small," said King. "And the battery has lagged far behind. This is a microtechnology that could change all of that. Now, the power source is as high-performance as the rest of it."

Batteries have two key components: the anode (minus side) and cathode (plus side). Building on a novel fast-charging cathode design by materials science and engineering professor Paul Braun's group, King and his colleague James Pikul developed a matching anode, then developed a new way to integrate the two components at the microscale to make a complete battery with superior performance.

"Our key insight," they report, "is that the battery micro-architecture can concurrently optimize ion and electron transport for high-power delivery, realized here as three-dimensional bi-continuous interdigitated microelectrodes. The battery microarchitecture affords trade-offs between power and energy density, resulting in a high-performance power source which is scalable to larger areas."

With so much raw power, the batteries could enable sensors that broadcast 30 times farther, or devices 30 times smaller. The batteries are rechargeable and can charge 1,000 times faster than competing technologies, potentially allowing a smartphone to be replenished in a matter of seconds. As well as consumer electronics, a vast range of other applications could benefit – from tiny medical devices, up to large objects like electric vehicles.

The team is now working on integrating their batteries with other components and will begin trials on electronic equipment before the end of the year. Safety issues will also need to be resolved, as well as manufacturability at low cost. However, this appears to be a very promising development.

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