Battery that 'charges in seconds' possible from MIT Research. A new manufacturing method for lithium-ion batteries could lead to smaller, lighter batteries that can be charged in just seconds. Batteries that discharge just as quickly would be useful for electric and hybrid cars, where a quick jolt of charge is needed for acceleration. The approach only requires simple changes to the production process of a well-known material. The new research is reported in the scientific journal Nature. Because of the electronic punch that they pack, gram for gram, lithium-ion batteries are the most common rechargeable batteries found in consumer electronics, such as laptops. Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) report in Nature today that they devised a way for lithium ions in a battery to zip in and out about 100 times faster than previously demonstrated. "We took a basically great material called lithium iron phosphate [LiFePO4] and we tried to improve it further," says study author Byoungwoo Kang, a graduate student in M.I.T.'s Department of Materials Science and Engineering.Video from the BBC
