New LiIons - 10k cycles and 70%charge in 2 minutes

From Nanyang Technical University today, LiIons where they change the graphite anode material to a gel of titanium dioxide nanotubes.
10,000 charge cycles and take 70% charge in 2 minutes!
http://media.ntu.edu.sg/NewsReleases/Pages/newsdetail.aspx?news=809fbb2f-95f0-4995-b5c0-10ae4c50c934

i don't like it when folks announce a new product several months before it is actually released and available

oops

Yeah, sounds too good to be true. They're sacrificing something to get that result, probably capacity. I expect the end result will be about the same as a super capacitor in terms of capacity. Or, more likely, it won't work out at all.

Sounds very awesome... yes to the point of being too good to be true almost... but since one of the cofounders of the LiIon cell is commenting, there may be something to it... estimated time to market is only 2 years... and while that might be optomistic as it often is in these situations, it's something to get a little hopeful about if not excited. Hats off to the team if they pull it off. A game changer like this would be a new world of possibilities.

We have been using this technology in flat cell Lithium Polymers for more than 4 yrs. It's pretty well thought out. Extends life cycle issues related to high charge/discharge rates but that's needed in the racing world. In the flashlight arena I'm not sure what might be gained? Cylindrical cells have other design issues to overcome before nano cell technology is a major improvement. But I guess everything should be viewed as baby steps. After all man didn't walk on the moon the day after the invention of the transistor right?

Nano cell technology ? Can you expand on it please.

m4a1usr said:

We have been using this technology in flat cell Lithium Polymers for more than 4 yrs. It's pretty well thought out. Extends life cycle issues related to high charge/discharge rates but that's needed in the racing world. In the flashlight arena I'm not sure what might be gained? Cylindrical cells have other design issues to overcome before nano cell technology is a major improvement. But I guess everything should be viewed as baby steps. After all man didn't walk on the moon the day after the invention of the transistor right?

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1947 to 1969, so...no. It took 22 years.

Now you've made me wonder, do people jump on seemingly-amazing stories like this purely for the novelty factor, or because of some deeper desire to see their lives fundamentally transformed in an unambiguously positive way? To put it differently, are people just looking for something to get excited about, or are they hoping to escape the present and move into the future? I think for me it's the latter -- I don't particularly care about robot servants and flying cars, but I *would* like to see the major problems of our time solved before I'm too old to enjoy the outcome. Being able to switch to running clean electric cars, without a huge tradeoff in operational range and recharge time, would be a big step in that direction -- even if there's still pollution involved with the mining, refining, construction, and power-generation phases, they would at least take place in centralized locations where the pollution could be mostly contained. Also, not needing to dig up carbon out of the ground and release it into the biosphere would be nice.

LED Lights, Lithium Ion batteries, Solar cells, and Cell Phones have already transformed in large ways many peoples lives, especially in less weathy countries. The cell-phone may have had the biggest impact so far, but a lot of people don't realize how fundamentally it has changed many lives. Fast recharging cells would be great for the evolution of electric cars, but the application of such cells in combination with other renewable energy resources and smaller countries would affect more lives, but both would really help the planet. I'm excited about technology advancements, and how some really have the potential to transform lives.

Fast charging cell means less requirement for capacity. This changes everything..

richardcpf said:

Fast charging cell means less requirement for capacity. This changes everything..

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Maybe not everything... I believe there will still be a market for high-capacity cells v.s. fast-charging cells. Not all use cases allow for regular charging or swapping and carrying many cells. Packing light is important sometimes.
That said, it would be really cool if true.

richardcpf said:

Fast charging cell means less requirement for capacity. This changes everything..

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How so? I don't care about how fast something charges. I care about how long it will last on a single charge. I need a cell phone to last at least a day. I'm not going to stop every hour to give it a quick charge. As long as it charges in under 8 hours, I don't care if it charges slow or fast.

The only thing fast charging might help is electric cars, giving them the ability to drive between cities. And that's only because battery capacity is insufficient.

WalkIntoTheLight said:

The only thing fast charging might help is electric cars, giving them the ability to drive between cities. And that's only because battery capacity is insufficient.

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Can you imagine the size cables you would need to carry that current? Your 1000 AH battery would need a 300 amp circuit! The alternative would be having 1000 amp batteries in your garage to charge the car.

n3eg said:

Can you imagine the size cables you would need to carry that current? Your 1000 AH battery would need a 300 amp circuit! The alternative would be having 1000 amp batteries in your garage to charge the car.

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I think the idea would be to have special charging stations that could provide the cables, current, and special hook-ups required to charge it. It would only be used when stopping at a service center, driving between cities. Obviously, a home owner would be unlikely to have the setup in his garage, or even the electrical utility service to allow it.

IMO, I'd rather they put the effort into doubling the capacity we have today.

Pretty fast I think. The Nissan Leaf does 80% in 30minutes...which I think is already pretty fast... maybe too fast?

ChibiM said:

Pretty fast I think. The Nissan Leaf does 80% in 30minutes...which I think is already pretty fast... maybe too fast?

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That's still not fast enough to replace our current method of filling up cars with gasoline. It would take 10x longer to charge up your car, which means service stations would have to have 10x more spots for cars to wait around charging up. And people would have to have something to do during that time, and be willing to wait around.

WalkIntoTheLight said:

How so? I don't care about how fast something charges. I care about how long it will last on a single charge. I need a cell phone to last at least a day. I'm not going to stop every hour to give it a quick charge. As long as it charges in under 8 hours, I don't care if it charges slow or fast.

The only thing fast charging might help is electric cars, giving them the ability to drive between cities. And that's only because battery capacity is insufficient.

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Summed up my feeling on the matter exactly. With even a little planning, charge time is a non-issue for me, for most things. I'm much more interested in higher capacity. For cars, given the huge energy demands, rapid charging does offer promise, but not at the expense of capacity, which is low enough already.

I am extremely dubious that we'll see anything like what the link claims in two years...but hopefully it is a real breakthrough, and will lead to incremental improvements for a variety of applications.