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 sigma on Wednesday April 08 2015, @03:51AM
If you set an aluminum engine block on fire in the middle of a street, you can't extinguish it, it will melt a hole through the asphalt.
And yet if you throw an aluminium pie dish into a fire, it won't ignite or cause tragedy. Isn't science mysterious?