MIT Develops Battery That Recharges In Seconds

A new battery technology developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology could lead to small, lightweight batteries for cell phones and other mobile devices that recharge in seconds instead of hours.

MIT on Wednesday said its engineers have taken existing battery material and changed it to create what it calls a "beltway" that allows for the rapid transit of electrical energy.

The technology also could be applied to rapid-charging car batteries, but the actual time needed for the recharge would depend on the user's electric grid, MIT said.

The new technology, similar to the lithium rechargeable batteries commonly used today, could be available in the market within two or three years.

While lithium batteries have high energy densities, they charge and discharge relatively slowly, MIT said. However, MIT about five years ago predicted that the material used in the batteries, lithium iron phosphate, should actually carry charges must faster.

The key, MIT said, was the way lithium ions in the material move through tunnels that can be accessed from the surface of the material. Those ions move quickly if near a tunnel, while others not near tunnels were blocked.

Gerbrand Ceder, the Richard P. Simmons professor of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT, and Byoungwoo Kang, a graduate student in materials science and engineering, solved the problem by creating a new surface structure that allows the lithium ions to move quickly outside the material in such a way that, when they reach a tunnel, they are diverted into it.

In addition to resulting in a small battery that can be charged or discharged in 10 seconds to 20 seconds, the technology also allows a reduction in size and weight because the material is less likely to degrade when repeatedly charged and recharged.

Ceder and Kang are co-authors of a story that is appearing in the March 12 issue of Nature magazine.