A battery that charges in less than 30 seconds

A team of researchers from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) has developed a new approach to an energy storage device that can be fully charged in just 20 seconds. The system works with an aqueous electrolyte (water-based solution) which makes it a perfect technology for portable electronic devices that often need to be charged quickly due to the current needs of users.

To take external batteries or to go with the loader to piggyback to all parts has become something quite habitual in our days. Our great use of the devices causes us to 'burn' the available battery in a short time. To solve this problem, the experts of KAIST have revolutionized the previous method with which the Aqueous Hybrid Condenser (AHC) is built, making the load much faster, safer and cheaper.

This battery has a new technology that promises an exceptionally faster load, with a much safer and cheaper system

The magic of graphene

These hybrid capacitors are mounted with a battery that stores the energy electrochemically as an electrostatic charge where the ions help transport the current. The concept of this battery is not new; we have already seen that it has been tried other times; however, this time the scientists used graphene-based polymers instead of metallic conductors, managing to overcome the obstacles of the previous Aqueous Hybrid Condensers that suffered from low power and a short useful life.

Taking into account the current technological needs, our devices should not only be compact, powerful, durable and quick to recharge, they should also be respectful with the environment (and preferably not explode if we bite them).

For these and other reasons, aqueous storage devices, those that contain water-based solutions instead of toxic or flammable organic pulp, have received a lot of attention as safe and reliable options.

Although it is less flammable than modern lithium batteries and potentially much cheaper, the way in which the solution carries electrons presents a serious problem. Thanks to this new hybrid capacitor using graphene-based polymers instead of more traditional metal conductors at the anode and the manufacture of the cathode with a dispersion of metal-oxide nanoparticles, the deficiencies of the previous hybrid capacitors are overcome.

The network of tiny carbon fibers at the anode turns out to be much more efficient to transfer electrons to the aqueous solution, allowing batteries with more than 100 times the power density of previous devices, while still maintaining the capacity for more than 100,000 charges.