Samsung says graphene balls can boost battery charging speed by up to five times

Researchers at Samsung and Seoul National University have come up with what may be a potential replacement for traditional lithium-ion batteries.

Lithium-ion batteries power the vast majority of mobile devices today, but while processing hardware and other technologies have advanced in great leaps and bounds, battery technology has progressed far more slowly.

However, researchers say they’ve now found a way to boost battery capacity by 45 per cent and charging speed by an eye-watering 500 per cent, and it’s all thanks to graphene. Most experimental batteries are often forced to trade one for the other, so the new technology is especially promising.

It involves processing graphene into a 3D form resembling a ball, and these graphene balls are then used to coat the battery’s anode and cathode, where their structure makes it easier to coat the electrodes more evenly.

Graphene has high stability and thermal conductivity, and can even function as a semiconductor, so this method can make the cathode more conductive while giving the anode a capacity boost. It also helps reduce wear-and-tear on the electrodes, which can happen if a battery is charged too quickly.

Furthermore, a battery designed this way can supposedly maintain more stable temperatures for improved safety, which Samsung will definitely appreciate after its Note7 fiasco.

This isn't the first time researchers have experimented with graphene to improve a battery's capabilities, and a Rice University team recently mixed asphalt with conductive graphene nanoribbons to form a new composite material that could be used to create porous carbon anodes that enable faster charging.

The capacity increase could put smartphone batteries in the range of 5,000 to 6,000mAh, and the graphene ball battery can also recharge completely in just 12 minutes, according to Samsung. That’s an impressive step up from conventional hour-long recharge cycles, which already feel pretty fast.

In fact, incorporating this new technology into modern devices won’t even require a complete retooling of existing manufacturing facilities. A graphene ball battery would share much of the same internal structure with current batteries, so adding the balls to existing manufacturing processes may only require a few years.

Graphene balls could also see applications outside mobile devices if they make their way into mass production. The larger batteries used in electric cars could benefit as well, and the vastly improved charging speeds would make them a lot more practical.

Source: Samsung

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