A LITHIUM-ION battery unveiled last week can recharge 80 per cent of its power in just 1 minute, and can recharge fully in 3 minutes. It also keeps more than 99 per cent of its original capacity even after 1000 test cycles of discharging and recharging. The new battery, from Japanese giant Toshiba, comes hard on the heels of another lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery from Altair Technologies of Reno, Nevada, that recharges in 6 minutes (Â鶹´«Ã½, 5 March, p 27).
Toshiba’s breakthrough was achieved by coating the non-carbon negative electrode with nanoparticles. The company has not revealed all the details, but its approach appears similar…
