Nearly every smartphone user has a story of how their device
died at the most inopportune time. That problem may be eliminated now that researchers
at Stanford University discovered a way to charge batteries faster and have
them last longer.
Experimenting with graphite as a cathode, researchers
found that aluminum-ion prototypes were able to charge a smartphone battery 60
times faster than a lithium-ion battery. The aluminum-ion concept was also able
to recharge 7,500 times, is flexible, and can be safely drilled without causing
a fire.
“There is a woefully short amount of cycles to go
through with lithium-ion batteries,” Kevin Krewell, principal analyst for
Tirias Research, said in an article for TechWorldNews. “To extend that would allow phones to last longer. You
wouldn’t have to worry about having to have your phone repaired if the battery
wears out and you have an iPhone or the latest Samsung handset.”
But the Stanford research is just a beginning. The new
technology must also show that it can be produced on a scale to meet the
demands of the electronics industry.
"In these types of research programs, much of the
research is done on very small cell sizes,” said Eric Lind, sales manager for
Varta Microbattery. “The results are then extrapolated to a commercial cell.
However, generally, the scale-up does not typically correlate linearly with
what is found in the lab.”
