HANGZHOU - Researchers at Zhejiang University have developed a new type of aluminum-graphene battery that can be charged in seconds instead of hours.

The team, led by professor Gao Chao, from the university's Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, designed the battery using graphene films as anode and metallic aluminum as cathode.

The battery could work well after a quarter-million cycles and can fully charge in seconds.

Experiments show that the battery retains 91 percent of its original capacity after 250,000 recharges, surpassing all previous batteries in terms of cycle life.

In quick-charge mode, it can be fully charged in 1.1 seconds, according to Gao. The finding was detailed in a paper recently published in Science Advances.

The assembled battery also works well in a temperature range of-40 to 120 C. It can be folded, and does not explode when exposed to fire.

However, the aluminum-ion battery cannot compete with commonly-used lithium-ion batteries in terms of energy density, or the amount of power you can store in a battery in relation to its size, Gao said.

"It is still costly to make such a battery. Commercial production will only be possible when we can find a cheaper electrolyte."

Xinhua