NTU develops ultra-fast charging batteries that last 20 years

Published on: 13-Oct-2014

​

(Clockwise from top) NTU Assoc Prof Chen Xiaodong with research fellow Tang Yuxin and PhD student Deng Jiyang

Scientists at Nanyang Technology University (NTU) have developed ultra-fast charging batteries that can be recharged up to 70 per cent in only two minutes.

The new generation batteries also have a long lifespan of over 20 years, more than 10 times compared to existing lithium-ion batteries.

This breakthrough has a wide-ranging impact on all industries, especially for electric vehicles, where consumers are put off by the long recharge times and its limited battery life.

With this new technology by NTU, drivers of electric vehicles could save tens of thousands on battery replacement costs and can recharge their cars in just a matter of minutes.

Commonly used in mobile phones, tablets, and in electric vehicles, rechargeable lithium-ion batteries usually last about 500 recharge cycles. This is equivalent to two to three years of typical use, with each cycle taking about two hours for the battery to be fully charged.

In the new NTU-developed battery, the traditional graphite used for the anode (negative pole) in lithium-ion batteries is replaced with a new gel material made from titanium dioxide.

Titanium dioxide is an abundant, cheap and safe material found in soil. It is commonly used as a food additive or in sunscreen lotions to absorb harmful ultraviolet rays.

Naturally found in spherical shape, the NTU team has found a way to transform the titanium dioxide into tiny nanotubes, which is a thousand times thinner than the diameter of a human hair. This speeds up the chemical reactions taking place in the new battery, allowing for superfast charging. 

Invented by Associate Professor Chen Xiaodong from NTU’s School of Materials Science and Engineering, the science behind the formation of the new titanium dioxide gel was published in the latest issue of Advanced Materials, a leading international scientific journal in materials science.

Prof Chen and his team will be applying for a Proof-of-Concept grant to build a large-scale battery prototype. With the help of NTUitive, a wholly-owned subsidiary of NTU  set up to support NTU start-ups, the patented technology has already attracted interest from the industry.

The technology is currently being licensed by a company for eventual production. Prof Chen expects that the new generation of fast-charging batteries will hit the market in the next two years. It also has the potential to be a key solution in overcoming longstanding power issues related to electro-mobility.

“Electric cars will be able to increase their range dramatically, with just five minutes of charging, which is on par with the time needed to pump petrol for current cars,” added Prof Chen.

“Equally important, we can now drastically cut down the toxic waste generated by disposed batteries, since our batteries last ten times longer than the current generation of lithium-ion batteries.”

The 10,000-cycle life of the new battery also mean that drivers of electric vehicles would save on the cost of battery replacements, which could cost over US$5,000 each.

Easy to manufacture

According to Frost & Sullivan, a leading growth-consulting firm, the global market of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries is projected to be worth US$23.4 billion in 2016.

Lithium-ion batteries usually use additives to bind the electrodes to the anode, which affects the speed in which electrons and ions can transfer in and out of the batteries.

However, Prof Chen’s new cross-linked titanium dioxide nanotube-based electrodes eliminates the need for these additives and can pack more energy into the same amount of space.

Manufacturing this new nanotube gel is very easy. Titanium dioxide and sodium hydroxide are mixed together and stirred under a certain temperature so battery manufacturers will find it easy to integrate the new gel into their current production processes.

Recognised as the next big thing by co-inventor of today’s lithium-ion batteries

NTU professor Rachid Yazami, the co-inventor of the lithium-graphite anode 30 years ago that is used in today’s lithium-ion batteries, said Prof Chen’s invention is the next big leap in battery technology.

“While the cost of lithium-ion batteries has been significantly reduced and its performance improved since Sony commercialised it in 1991, the market is fast expanding towards new applications in electric mobility and energy storage,” said Prof Yazami, who is not involved in Prof Chen’s research project.

Last year, Prof Yazami was awarded the prestigious Draper Prize by The National Academy of Engineering for his ground-breaking work in developing the lithium-ion battery with three other scientists.

“However, there is still room for improvement and one such key area is the power density – how much power can be stored in a certain amount of space – which directly relates to the fast charge ability. Ideally, the charge time for batteries in electric vehicles should be less than 15 minutes, which Prof Chen’s nanostructured anode has proven to do so.”

Prof Yazami is now developing new types of batteries for electric vehicle applications at the Energy Research Institute at NTU (ERI@N).

This battery research project took the team of four scientists three years to complete. It is funded by the National Research Foundation (NRF), Prime Minister's Office, Singapore, under its Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE) Programme of Nanomaterials for Energy and Water Management.

Media contact:

Lester Kok
Senior Assistant Manager
Corporate Communications Office
Nanyang Technological University
Tel: 6790 6804
Email: lesterkok@ntu.edu.sg

About Nanyang Technological University

A research-intensive public university, Nanyang Technological University (NTU) has 33,500 undergraduate and postgraduate students in the colleges of Engineering, Business, Science and Humanities, Arts, & Social Sciences, It has a new medical school, the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, set up jointly with Imperial College London, and also an Interdisciplinary Graduate School.

NTU is home to world-class autonomous institutes – the National Institute of Education, S Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Earth Observatory of Singapore, and Singapore Centre on Environmental Life Sciences Engineering – and various leading research centres such as the Nanyang Environment & Water Research Institute (NEWRI), Energy Research Institute @ NTU (ERI@N) and the Institute on Asian Consumer Insight (ACI).

A fast-growing university with an international outlook, NTU is putting its global stamp on Five Peaks of Excellence: Sustainable Earth, Future Healthcare, New Media, New Silk Road, and Innovation Asia.

Besides the main Yunnan Garden campus, NTU also has a satellite campus in Singapore’s science and tech hub, one-north, and a third campus in Novena, Singapore’s medical district.

For more information, visit www.ntu.edu.sg

 Source: 

http://media.ntu.edu.sg/NewsReleases/Pages/newsdetail.aspx?news=809fbb2f-95f0-4995-b5c0-10ae4c50c934

港版iPhone6/6 Plus今起预订 5588港币起每人限购2部

今日，是第一批iPhone6和iPhone6 Plus预定的日子，想要第一时间入手iPhone6就需要去苹果官网上预订。而中国网友想要预订的话，最多人选择的方式就是去香港官网预订。据香港苹果官网显示，他们的预订服务将会在今天下午三点开始。准备预订的果粉准备好了吗？

　　iPhone6和iPhone6 Plus两款新手机的价格也已经显示在官网当中。4.7英寸的iPhone6起售价为5588港币，对应的是16GB版本。64GB和128GB版本的价格分别是6388和7188港币，与去年的iPhone5s一样拥有银、金、灰三种配色。

　　至于5.5英寸的iPhone6 Plus，其起售价为6388港币，按照容量的增加还有7188和8088港币的版本。根据香港苹果官网显示，这一次的预订将限制在每名顾客两部。另外，官网还显示当地消费者可在9月16日上午8时通过苹果零售店进行预约，成功之后可于9月19日到店内提取。

　　目前香港一共有三家苹果零售店，分别位于希慎广场、又一城和国际金融中心商场。与往年的购买政策一样，今年同样是以预约取货的形式来迎接新一代iPhone的上市。想必未来iPhone6和iPhone6 Plus在中国大陆上市之后也会采用相同的营销政策。

　　目前iPhone6/iPhone6 Plus的第二批发售国家也已经出炉，令大陆果粉失望的是，此次的第二批发售国家仍然没有中国（详情）。看到，想要第一时间拥有iPhone6，即使有钱也难以购买到。

iPhone 6 Timeline

SEPTEMBER2014

Sep 12Apple Now Taking Pre-Orders for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus Through U.S. Online Store [Updated]

Sep 12iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus Now Available for Pre-Order [Updated]

Sep 12Apple Store Down Ahead of iPhone 6 and 6 Plus Pre-Orders

Sep 11Apple to Offer In-Store Pickup Option for iPhone 6 Pre-Orders

Sep 11Sapphire Displays for iPhone 6 Missed by 'Weeks' Due to Yield Issues

Sep 11iPhone 6 Pre-Orders to Kick off Tonight at 12:01 AM Pacific

Sep 11First iPhone 6 and 6 Plus Shipments Reportedly Land on U.S. Soil

Sep 11Apple Aiming to Ship 80 Million iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus Units By End of 2014

Sep 10Apple Implementing 'Reservation Pass' System at Retail Stores for iPhone 6 Launch

Sep 9Apple CEO Tim Cook: iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus Will Trigger 'Mother of All Upgrades'

Sep 9Hands-On First Impressions of Apple's New Payment Initiative, Apple Pay

Sep 9Hands-On First Impressions of the New iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus

Sep 9Apple Announces 4.7-Inch iPhone 6 and 5.5-Inch iPhone 6 Plus, Launching September 19

Sep 9Alleged iPhone 6 Geekbench Results Reveal 1.4 GHz Dual-Core A8 Chip, 1 GB of RAM

Sep 8Apple's Larger Phones May Be Called iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus

Sep 8Both 4.7-Inch and 5.5-Inch iPhone 6 Models Reportedly Launching on September 19

Sep 8Older iPhone 5 and iPad 2 Models Still Lead Apple's iOS Device Lineups in Usage

Sep 8New Video Again Shows 5.5-Inch iPhone 6 Battery With 2,915 mAh Capacity

Sep 8iOS Simulator Shows Possibility of iPad-Like Landscape Apps on 5.5-Inch iPhone 6

Sep 7Former GT Employee Appears to Confirm Apple's Plans for Sapphire Display Covers

来源：网络