14 DAY TRIAL // A new type of Lithium-Ion rechargeable battery has been announced by Toshiba, the novelty being the possibility of an 80% recharge in just a minute. The battery will be available in stores starting from next year and if the specifications are correct, the recharging time of this prototype will be 60 times smaller than one of normal rechargeable batteries.
The solution allowing such speed performances is based on nano technology. The innovation consists in the implementation of nano-particles in the battery, which prevents the quick disintegration of organic electrolytes, phenomenon frequently encountered at classical batteries. The nano-particles quickly absorb and store the lithium ions, the electrodes remaining intact during the whole process. Hence, a fast recharge and the improvement of the battery's life cycle are possible.
Toshiba says that after laboratory tests, which consisted of 1,000 recharge-discharge cycles, the capacity of the battery was affected only with 1%.
At first, the new fast recharge batteries will be used in the automobile industry and other domains related to that. The possibility of modifying these batteries so that they can be used as alternative power sources for automobiles is also taken into consideration.
In the best case, Toshiba will start mass production in 2006. Until now, no comments have been made about the price of these batteries or if they will be in same price category as classical batteries.