No, this is not the high speed charger. But it looks interesting.
Charge your mobile phone in 10 seconds is the promise of new technology reported in this week’s New Scientist.
Two researchers at MIT have developed a new lithium ion battery capable of charging 100 times faster than today’s cells.
Recharging conventional cells, it seems, is slow because the charge has to pull ions from the cathode at one end of the battery so the anode can absorb them.
The new battery uses a cathode made up of 50nm lithium iron phosphate balls, coated with a thin layer of lithium phosphate. These quickly release ions when a charge hits them. In use, it discharges by shuttling the ions from the anode back across the cell to be re-absorbed by the nanoballs. Faster, we guess, than the time taken to explain the process.
The inventors see an application in big batteries for electric cars which could recharge in five minutes if you have a charger powerful enough. Do not expect this application to be available this week. Or this year, for that matter.