Stanford University scientists have invented the first high-performance aluminum battery that’s fast-charging, long-lasting and inexpensive. They say it is a safer alternative to many commercial batteries in use today.
“We have developed a rechargeable aluminum battery that may replace existing storage devices, such as alkaline batteries, which are bad for the environment, and lithium-ion batteries, which occasionally burst into flames,” said Hongjie Dai, a professor of chemistry at Stanford.
“Our new battery won’t catch fire, even if you drill through it.”
Dai and his colleagues describe their novel aluminum-ion battery in “An ultrafast rechargeable aluminum-ion battery” in the journal Nature.
Aluminum has long been an attractive material for batteries, mainly because of its low cost, low flammability and high-charge storage capacity. For decades, researchers have tried unsuccessfully to develop a commercially viable aluminum-ion battery.
A key challenge has been finding materials capable of producing sufficient voltage after repeated cycles of charging and discharging.
Originally published by Cosmos as New aluminium battery ‘safer than conventional batteries’
Bill Condie
Bill Condie is a science journalist based in Adelaide, Australia.
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