Scientists develop fast recharging material for lithium-ion batteries

A group of South Korean scientists has developed a new material for a secondary or rechargeable battery that can be fully recharged in just a matter of minutes, the science ministry said Monday.

The development of such a battery could significantly raise the popularity of electric vehicles whose lithium-ion batteries currently take hours to recharge, according to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology.

Conventional batteries use only powdered nanoparticle materials to form a dense, multi-layered structure that can store and give off energy.

The new battery, on the other hand, uses the same type of nanoparticle materials that are first resolved in a solution that contains graphite, which later is carbonized to form a dense network of conductors all throughout the electrodes of the battery, the ministry said.

As a result, all energy-holding particles of the new battery start recharging simultaneously while the same particles in conventional batteries begin recharging in order from the outermost particles to the innermost.

This cuts down on the time needed to recharge the new type of battery to between 1/30 and 1/120 of that of existing rechargeable batteries, according to the ministry.

“The research is especially remarkable in that it overcame limitations of existing lithium-ion batteries,” Cho Jae-phil, a professor of Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, was quoted as saying.

“We will further move closer to developing a new secondary battery for electric cars that can be fully recharged in less than a minute.”

The research team, partly funded by the science ministry, also includes four doctoral students of the Ulsan university – Lee Sang-han, Cho Yong-hyun, Song Hyun-kon and Lee Kyu-tae.

Their paper, titled “Carbon-Coated Single-Crystal LiMn2O4 Nanoparticle Clusters as Cathode Material for High-Energy and High-Power Lithium-Ion Batteries,” was published earlier this month in the international edition of the weekly journal Angewandte Chemie. (Yonhap News)



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6초 만에 배터리 50% 충전 신기술 등장!

리튬이차전지의 충전 속도를 획기적으로 높이는 신기술을 국내 연구진이 개발했다.

13일 교육과학기술부에 따르면 울산과학기술대(UNIST) 친환경에너지공학부 조재필 교수 연구팀은 리튬이차전지의 출력과 용량을 동시에 획기적으로 높이는 새로운 전극 소재 합성법을 개발했다.

연구팀은 탄소로 코팅된 단결정 나노입자 클러스터를 전극으로 이용, 충전 시간을 줄이고 출력은 높인 리튬이차전지를 만드는 데 성공했다.

이에 따라 충전 시간은 상용화 전지 대비 30분의 1∼120분의 1로 단축했고, 평상시의 300배에 이르는 전류를 흘려 단 6초만에 50%의 용량을 사용할 수 있는 고출력 특성을 얻었다.

이 연구는 1분 내외의 짧은 시간에 충전할 수 있는 전기자동차용 전지를 개발하는 데도 사용될 수 있을 것이라고 연구팀은 예상했다.

연구 논문은 독일화학회가 내는 화학 분야 권위지 ‘응용화학 국제판’(Angewandte Chemie International Edition)‘에 게재됐다.

(코리아헤럴드)