Scientists develop 3-minute charging battery with 60,000-cycle lifespan

If you use a smartphone, you also have to charge it. Normally, charging a phone can take anywhere from 30 minutes to several hours depending on whether the battery supports fast charging.

However, scientists have now developed a battery that can be fully charged in just a few minutes and could also have a remarkably long lifespan. Researchers at Flinders University in Australia have developed a new type of battery that can reportedly be fully charged 60,000 times.

More importantly, it takes only three minutes to fully charge. The battery uses a completely different zinc-ion technology and is also designed to be safer with no risk of catching fire.

Currently, smartphones use lithium-ion batteries which have two main layers: one made of lithium cobalt oxide and the other of graphite. When lithium ions move from the graphite layer toward the lithium cobalt oxide layer, electrons are released.

When the battery is charged, the ions move in the opposite direction and accumulate there. They are later released when the phone is being used. This release of energy generates heat which can be felt on the back of a phone when it is heavily charged or used extensively.

Over the long term, this heat can damage the battery. This is why smartphone batteries naturally degrade after months or years of charging, something that happens with virtually every phone. However, the battery developed by Australian researchers works differently and uses zinc and iodine.

According to the researchers, the system uses a low-cost cyclodextrin-based polymer. This polymer is already used in food, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and several other industries but it can also help store electrically charged atoms.

If a battery can be fully charged 60,000 times, its potential lifespan would be equivalent to around 164 years. Currently, most smartphone batteries have a lifespan of around one to two years.

Experts at Flinders University said that the new battery is not yet available for smartphones and requires further development and improvement before it can be used in consumer devices.