An electric car battery charges in less than 5 minutes

The engineers Cornell University They invented a new lithium battery that can be charged in a record time of less than five minutes and maintains its performance over long cycles.

Progress can mitigate “Independence anxiety” Among drivers who fear that electric cars cannot travel long distances without time-consuming recharging, according to the authors.

“Range anxiety is a greater barrier to transportation electrification than any others, such as cost and battery capacity, and we have identified a path to eliminating it using rational electrode designs,” Linden Archer said in a statement. Professor of Engineering and Dean of the College of Engineering at Cornell University, who supervised the project.

“If you can charge an electric car battery in five minutes, I mean, gosh, you don't need to get a battery big enough to go 300 miles (500 kilometers). You can settle for less than that, which is what I think,” adds Archer, whose work has been published in the journal Jules: “It could reduce the cost of electric cars and enable their wider adoption.”

the Lithium-ion batteries They are among the most popular means of powering electric cars and smartphones. Batteries are light, reliable and relatively energy efficient. However, it takes hours to charge and lacks the ability to withstand significant current surges.

Researchers have identified indium as an exceptionally promising material for fast-charging batteries. Indium is a soft metal, mainly used to make indium tin oxide coatings for touch screens and solar panels.

The new study shows that indium has two critical properties as a battery anode: an extremely low energy barrier for transition, which determines the rate of diffusion of ions in the solid state; and the modest exchange current density, which is related to the rate at which ions are reduced at the anode. The combination of these qualities (rapid diffusion and slow surface reaction kinetics) is essential for rapid shipping and long-term storage.

“The main innovation is that we discovered a design principle that allows the metal ions in the battery anode to move freely, find the right configuration and only then participate in the charge storage reaction,” Archer said. “The end result is that for each charging cycle, the electrode is in a stable morphological state. This is exactly what gives our new fast-charging batteries the ability to charge and discharge repeatedly over thousands of cycles.”

This technology, along with wireless charging on the road, It would reduce the size (and cost) of batteries, making electric transportation a more viable option for drivers. However, this does not mean that indium anodes are ideal, or even practical.