Huawei’s Watt Lab has announced a breakthrough in battery technology that will allow the company to make batteries that charge 10 times faster than that of regular lithium ion batteries. The announcement was made at the 56th Battery Symposium in Japan, which is apparently a thing that happens.
The company demonstrated two situations of charging the new battery technology during its unveiling. The first powered a 680mAh cell up to 68-percent capacity within two minutes. Impressive, but not particularly noteworthy considering the size of the battery show. The second demonstration charges a 3000mAh battery to 48-percent capacity in under five minutes, which is closer to what real world use would look like.
Huawei’s press release didn’t go into many details about what makes these batteries different from competing fast charging standards. According to the text, the researchers “bonded heteroatoms to the molecule of graphite in anode, which could be a catalyst for the capture and transmission of lithium through carbon bonds.”
This method of making batteries apparently increases the charging speed of batteries, without sacrificing energy density or battery life.
It will still be some time before we begin seeing these new fast charging batteries on the market; especially considering how long it generally takes for new discoveries to reach consumers. Technology companies have been pushing fast charging capabilities lately, which is a great thing for mobile devices. If battery capacity is not going to improve, we can at least charge the things faster instead.
