The main issue faced by electrodes in rechargeable batteries is that they must expand and shrink during each cycle, as they go through continuous process of charging and discharging, sometimes twice in volume, and then decreasing back. As a result, the repeated shedding and reforming of the layer consumes lithium and reduces the battery’s capacity.

Team of researchers at MIT and Tsinghua University in China have developed a new battery made with aluminium-filled capsules that could charge your cellphone in six minutes. It makes use of nanoparticles with a shell of titanium dioxide enclosed around aluminium, which behaves as the battery’s negative electrode.

Also, the metal could expand and shrink freely by enclosing the aluminium inside a shell. According to the team, this novel way could radically improve battery’s life cycle by encouraging its capacity and power. The battery has four times the capacity of current lithium-ion batteries and deteriorate over lesser period of time.

The research succeeds in dealing with problems faced in the past by using aluminium in rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. At a normal charging rate, the outcome is an electrode that provides more than thrice the capacity of graphite (1.2 Ah/g), says MIT professor Ju Li. However, the capacity is still 0.66 Ah/g after 500 cycles at very fast charging rates (six minutes to full charge). She further adds that the materials are cheap and it also has simple and easy scalable manufacturing method.

The team of researchers included Sa Li, Yu Cheng Zhao, and Chang An Wang of Tsinghua University in Beijing and Junjie Niu, Kangpyo So, and Chao Wang of MIT. The work was landed support by the National Science Foundation and the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

The study was published in the journal Nature Communications.

Posted By: Amad Ahmad