Researchers from the University of Cambridge (www.cam.ac.uk) have identified a group of materials that could be used to make high-powered fast-charging batteries.

Apart from the obvious benefits of having a mobile phone fully charged in minutes, the challenges associated with making a better battery are holding back the widespread adoption of electric cars and grid-scale storage for solar power.

Researchers from the University of Cambridge (working with the STFC-funded Diamond Light Source in Oxfordshire and Argonne National Laboratory in the USA) have used materials with a complex crystalline structure and found that lithium ions moved through them at much higher rates than through typical electrode materials, resulting in a much faster-charging battery.

In their simplest form, batteries are made of three components: a positive electrode, a negative electrode and an electrolyte.

When a battery is charging, lithium ions are extracted from the positive electrode and move through the crystal structure and electrolyte to the negative electrode, where they are stored.

The faster this process occurs, the faster the battery can be charged.

The research was funded in part by the Science and Technology Facilities Council, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the European Union.