Lithium Ion Battery Technology Moving Forward
More great research coming out of MIT, scientists have found a way of improving the charging speed of Lithium Ion batteries.
Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) report in Nature today that they devised a way for lithium ions in a battery to zip in and out about 100 times faster than previously demonstrated. “We took a basically great material called lithium iron phosphate [LiFePO4] and we tried to improve it further,”
“In an attempt to pick up the pace, the M.I.T. researchers coated the lithium iron phosphate material with an ion conductor, which in this case was a layer of glasslike lithium phosphate. Sure enough, the charge-carrying ions traveled much faster from their storage medium; a prototype battery the scientists built completely charged in about 10 to 20 seconds.” [Scientific American]
Think about it, being able to stop at a charging station with my electric car and have it topped off in under a minute.