Scientists develop fast recharging material for lithium-ion batteries via Yonhap
A group of South Korean scientists has developed a new material for a secondary or rechargeable battery that can be fully recharged in just a matter of minutes, the science ministry said Monday.The development of such a battery could significantly raise the popularity of electric vehicles whose lithium-ion batteries currently take hours to recharge, according to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology.
Conventional batteries use only powdered nanoparticle materials to form a dense, multi-layered structure that can store and give off energy.
The new battery, on the other hand, uses the same type of nanoparticle materials that are first resolved in a solution that contains graphite, which later is carbonized to form a dense network of conductors all throughout the electrodes of the battery, the ministry said.
This cuts down on the time needed to recharge the new type of battery to between 1/30 and 1/120 of that of existing rechargeable batteries, according to the ministry.
"The research is especially remarkable in that it overcame limitations of existing lithium-ion batteries," Cho Jae-phil, a professor of Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, was quoted as saying.
"We will further move closer to developing a new secondary battery for electric cars that can be fully recharged in less than a minute."
The research team, partly funded by the science ministry, also includes four doctoral students of the Ulsan university -- Lee Sang-han, Cho Yong-hyun, Song Hyun-kon and Lee Kyu-tae.
Their paper, titled "Carbon-Coated Single-Crystal LiMn2O4 Nanoparticle Clusters as Cathode Material for High-Energy and High-Power Lithium-Ion Batteries," was published earlier this month in the international edition of the weekly journal Angewandte Chemie.
