Korean scientists develop fast-charging battery

South Korean scientists have developed a new material for rechargeable lithium-ion batteries that they say could cut charging time down significantly and prove a boon for electric vehicles.

According to Yonhap News Agency's report on Monday, a group of scientists from Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, who were funded by the country's Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, has gone beyond conventional rechargeable battery technology.

Conventional batteries use powdered nanoparticle materials to form a dense, multi-layered structure that can store and give off energy, it noted. The new battery will use the same nanoparticle materials, but these will be in the form of a solution that contains graphite which will later carbonize to form a dense network of conductors throughout the electrodes of the battery, the ministry stated in the report.

Now, all the electrodes of the battery will be able to recharge simultaneously whereas conventional batteries' electrodes can be charged starting from the outermost particles in. This cuts down charging time for the new battery to between 1/30 and 1/120 of existing rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, the ministry added.

"The research is especially remarkable in that it overcame limitations of existing lithium-ion batteries. We will further move closer to developing a new secondary battery for electric cars that can be fully recharged in less than a minute," said Cho Jae-phil, a professor at Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, in the report.

The scientists' research paper was published earlier in August in the international edition of the weekly journal Angewandte Chemie, it added.