Asphalt key to faster-charging lithium batteries, say researchers

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Fast-charging high-capacity batteries sound ideal if they can get the idea to work at the real-world industrial scale – always a big ‘if’ of course.

Asphalt may hold the key to unlocking the high capacity of lithium metal batteries, reports R&D Magazine.

Rice University researchers have found that a small amount of asphalt may allow lithium metal batteries to charge 10-to-20 times faster than commercial lithium-ion batteries.

The researchers developed anodes— comprising of porous carbon from asphalt— that showed stability after more than 500 charge-discharge cycles and a high-current density of 20 milliamps per square centimeter, demonstrating the material’s promise for use in rapid charge and discharge devices that require high-power density.

“The capacity of these batteries is enormous but what is equally remarkable is that we can bring them from zero charge to full charge in five minutes, rather than the typical two hours or more needed with other batteries,” Rice chemist James Tour said in a statement.

The researchers mixed asphalt with conductive graphene nanoribbons and coated the composite with lithium metal through electrochemical deposition.

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