Greener batteries: Li-ion cells could charge up in mere seconds

Like most people, you're probably tired of waiting hours for your cell phone batteries to recharge. But now, researchers have discovered new technology that reportedly not only charges up batteries in seconds, but enables the batteries to hold their charge well.

In an article published yesterday in the prestigious journal Nature, Byoungwoo Kang and Gerbrand Ceder of MIT report they have figured out a way to get lithium ion batteries -- essentially the same type of battery used in products from mobile phones to hybrid automobiles -- to release and take up lithium ion molecules in under nine seconds.

In studying the chemical properties of lithium ion phosphate, a compound found in the cathode material of some commercial batteries, the two MIT scientists theorized that the compound could be made to do a faster job of moving from the cathode to the electrolyte. That's because the chemical structure of the compound creates the right size tunnels for the lithium to move through, the researchers explained.

Kang and Ceder turned to an approach that had been tried earlier with other battery materials, such as nickel oxide. The MIT scientists first coated the cathode with a thin layer of glass -- in this case, made of lithium phosphate -- and then determined that the coated phosphate could charge and discharge lithium ions practically instantaneously.

Lithium, moreover, is able to store more energy for less weight than nickel oxide, and it also holds its charge longer. Although cell phone owners might have reason to rejoice, too, the new technology is regarded by scientists as particularly important for hybrid vehicles, which need to recharge their batteries in the few seconds' time it takes for the driver to put on the vehicle's brakes.