Aluminum-Ion Batteries, The new wave in portable power?

Its early morning, your running late to head out for your day. You grab your phone and realize you forgot to charge it last night and you have less then 20% remaining. I have found myself here a few times. What if you could fully charge your phone in a fraction of the time, like the time it takes you to brush your teeth.

Now when it comes to battery tech the king of the ring is Lithium Ion. It’s in our phones, laptops, even our hybrid cars, but there is a new contender coming to the ring and it promises to revolutionize the portable power game.

About a month ago at the University of Stanford, researchers released a new development in battery technology, or rather they “Stumbled” across it. While working with various materials to make a new cathode (the positive plate) they were able to charge an aluminum-ion prototype of comparable size to the one in your self phone, in about 60 seconds.

Further research has revealed that there is a massive improvement on the number of charge cycles to over 7,000 cycles from the current average of about 1,000 before the capacity begins to diminish.

Why aren’t we seeing this technology in our smart devices? Well for one this tech is still in its infancy. There is still work that needs to be done to increase the energy density (the amount of energy stored in a given system or region of space per unit volume or mass).

The timeframe right now is about 3-5 years before Aluminum-Ion could be a viable solution seen in our everyday products. Yea its a ways off but in the grand scheme of things is breakneck speed especially since the same time last year Stanford was working on refining Lithium-Ion tech using nano-carbon technology to improve Lithium-Ion life cycle and reduce seepage and explosion hazard.

Stay tuned for more tech news and tips from R0gu3 L4mbd4