New batteries can be charged in seconds
Updated on 12 March 2009
Scientists have made a breakthrough in battery technology that could see mobile phones and laptops fully charged in seconds rather than hours.
Researchers in America said the faster process could transform lifestyles.
The advance, which could also be used in electric cars and iPods, could lead to smaller, lighter batteries hitting the market place within the next three years.
The technology works by allowing lithium ions to pass through the battery faster to speed up the discharge of power.
It could lead to smaller batteries - like those used in mobile phones and iPods - being fully charged in 10 to 20 seconds.
Professor Gerbrand Ceder, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said: "The ability to charge and discharge batteries in a matter of seconds rather than hours may open up new technological applications and induce lifestyle changes."
Prof Ceder said the materials used are not new but researchers have changed the way batteries are made.
He said he and his colleagues made a breakthrough about five years ago after calculations showed a common battery material - lithium iron phosphate - should move "extremely quickly".
Work then began to find faster routes for the lithium ions and electrons to pass through the battery.
Along with Byoungwoo Kang - a graduate in materials science and engineering - Prof Ceder developed a new "surface" structure that effectively created a bypass for the power to travel along.
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