Aluminium battery charges smartphones in 60 secs

Published 7th April, 2015 by Nadine Bloxsome

The potentially-revolutionary aluminium battery is also more environmentally friendly than current lithium-ion and alkaline batteries and keeps working for "thousands" of cycles.

The "ultrafast rechargeable aluminium-ion battery", developed by chemists at Stanford University, is a "major breakthrough" for portable technology, according to the team that discovered it.

In experiments the battery successfully charged a smartphone in one minute, compared to current lithium-ion batteries that take hours to deliver a full charge. The aluminium-ion battery delivers two volts of electricity and could also potentially replace the millions of 1.5 volt AA and AAA batteries used in gadgets ranging from remote controls to toys.