The Telegraph and Stanford News are reporting a new aluminium-ion cell which is hoped will outperform conventional lithium-ion cells.
As well as charging in 60 seconds, it is claimed, the cell will withstand 7,500 charge/discharge cycles compared with lithium-ion's 1,000 cycles.
Apart from a low 2-volt output, "our battery has everything else you'd dream that a battery should have: inexpensive electrodes, good safety, high-speed charging, flexibility and long cycle life," states Hongjie Dai, Professor of chemistry at Stanford University.
"We have developed a rechargeable aluminium battery that may replace existing storage devices, such as alkaline batteries, which are bad for the environment, and lithium-ion batteries, which occasionally burst into flames."
The research is due to be published in Nature.
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Tuesday April 07 2015, @08:15PM
I take it you've never incorrectly jumped a car(or seen it happen or heard about it, lest ya'll think I have). Batteries are dangerous piles of dense chemical energy.