New Li-Ion Batteries that Charge Almost INSTANTLY (coming soon!)

[Sussudio]

I thought this was a really cool article worthy of posting (even though it's from IGN ):

A new manufacturing method for lithium-ion batteries might not only produce smaller and lighter batteries, but also reduce the charge time to just mere seconds.

When they were first adopted as the most popular form of rechargeable battery due to their electronic strength, lithium-ion batteries were thought to carry restrictions on just how fast the lithium-ions and electrons pass through them. However, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have used computer simulations to identify ways to potentially work around these restrictions.

The team, lead by Professor Gerbrand Ceder, used their compiled data to develop a prototype battery that could be charged in 20 seconds, versus an older style lithium battery that requires six minutes to recharge. The difference between the two is that the prototype battery uses lithium iron phosphate into of standard lithium material, which the researchers were able to modify to allow for the ions to move dramatically faster throughout the battery.

Additionally, the team realized that their battery does not lose its capacity to charge over time, something standard lithium batteries suffer from. What this means is that the extra material typically placed within current lithium batteries to help prevent that loss of charge won't be needed in the lithium phosphate editions, resulting in smaller, lighter batteries that are better than their predecessors in every way.

The best news, however, is that the new battery material requires very few changes to the standard manufacturing process, which leads the team to believe that these vastly upgraded batteries could be making their way to the market within two to three years. Our laptops and electronic hybrid cars are already starting to drool!

So to sum up if you don't want to read all of that:

• New Li-Ion batteries will have the ability to charge much, much faster (a test showed improvement from a standard 6 minutes to 20 seconds)
• The new batteries will hold their charges for a much longer period of time (test showed that the new battery did not lose it charge at all)
• The new batteries could make their way to the consumer market within a few years

Hopefully iPods would start using these Not holding my breath..