New Hybrid Batteries Charge in Seconds
PrintCall it an example of Murphy's Law or just plain dumb luck, but whatever the reason, batteries seem to give up the ghost at the most inopportune time. That won't matter if energy storage company "Ioxus" makes good on its promise to deliver a hybrid battery that combines the attributes of an ultracapacitor with a lithium-ion battery, CNet reports.
Due to arrive in the first quarter of 2011, these hybrid containers store over the twice the energy of traditional ultracapacitors, but even better, they charge insanely fast. How fast? That depends on the size, but for a battery used to power an ear probe for medical applications, a full charge would take just 90 seconds, while a partial charge would take just 20 seconds, according to Ioxus CEO Mark McGough.
"What we've been able to do is take the fast charge/discharge of ultracapacitors and improve the energy density by designing in a lithium-ion electrode and putting it all in the same device," McGough said.
Of course there's a caveat (isn't there always?). The life cycle of these hybrid capacitors is far shorter than that of a traditional one. While regular ultracapacitors are good for millions of charge/discharge cycles, the hybird units would last just 20,000 cycles.
Image Credit: Ioxus
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Sparx10
November 16, 2010 at 1:24am
1. F*** spam
2. Sick tech. And "Only 20,000 cycles" is still pretty good considering what it brings to the table.
kiaghi7
November 15, 2010 at 3:33pm
I've been waiting for rechargible Li-Ion batteries to come about in AA, AAA, C, D, 9v and so forth for quite a while, and would welcome these...
Provided their price-point per battery is something reasonable (under $10) AND their performance in cold/hot out-door temperatures was also adequate (some NiMH batters are less than stellar when it's really cold), then I'd be right in line on day one for these simply because 20,000 recharges is actually phenominal if that's to be expected in household-type battery sizes.
Another minor concern is that the charger likely makes the things hotter than hell with such a short charge time. Even some NiMH batteries in a "15 minute charger" can get quite hot to the touch, even uncomfortably so, but cool down quite quickly. I'm always anxious with electronics getting hotter than luke warm.
orca11
November 15, 2010 at 7:35am
Yeah, 20K's plenty for battery type applications... I wonder what the production cost is going to be? Probably a bit much to be throwing in my kid's train set.
Bluntknife
November 15, 2010 at 7:11am
20000 recharge cycles is an incredible amount.
Charge is twice a day, which is likely what will happen with electric cars, and the battery will still hold up for 27 years.
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