Is aluminium the answer to all our battery prayers?
New research pushes aluminium batteries as the next generation technology to revolutionise mobile devices, but what else could finally make smartphones last more than a day New research by Stanford University into aluminium batteries promises to produce cells that are big enough for a smartphone and charge in just 60 seconds. The new high-performance aluminium-ion battery is the first using the metal – more commonly found in aircraft and car bodies – to demonstrate long life and fast charging. It does this using a graphite electrode. Previous aluminium batteries have suffered from poor life, failing after 100 recharge cycles. Stanford’s new battery can be recharged around 7,500 times. Typical lithium-ion batteries used in everything from smartphones and laptops to electric cars last around 1,000 recharge cycles. But the new aluminium-ion batteries are far from being available for commercial use in electronics, producing just half ...