Researchers at the Huawei Technology Corporation have unveiled a new quick charging lithium-ion battery. The development is said to result in batteries that charge ten times faster than conventional Li-ion batteries.
At the 56th Battery Symposium in Japan last week, Huawei, which provides batteries for many devices from other manufacturers as well as their own, showed two videos depicting fast charging with the new batteries. In one, a small 600 mAh capacity battery charged to 68 percent capacity in two minutes. In another, a much larger 3,000 mAh battery charged to 48 percent capacity in five minutes. The latter battery has an energy density of 620 Wh/L and is reported capable of powering a Huawei mobile phone for 10 hours of continuous talk time with that 48 percent charge.
Engineers in the Watt Lab of the Central Research Institute at Huawei bonded heteroatoms to the graphite molecules in the anode of the battery. Introducing defects and heteroatom and/or functional groups into carbonaceous anode material is already known to improve and modulate anode material. LLNL has already done research utilizing hydrogen for that purpose. In essence, Huawei is doing the same thing, but utilizing slightly different methods.
Once longevity testing has been completed, this research could mean portable electronics with battery lives measured in days rather than hours. It could also mean that getting out the cord for that quick top-off of the battery would be very much worth the trouble. This could also potentially have big implications for plug-in electric cars and a host of other battery-powered items.
Source: Huawei Tech Corp
You are assuming that they are charging at 5 volts?
Quick Charge 2.0 is already charging at 9V, I assume in this case they are also charging at an elevated voltage...and who knows what other modifications.
My phone has the quick charge feature, and its great, but I do worry about the long term effects it will have on the battery, so I use it only when I need a quick boost mid-day.
48% in 5 minutes is linearly equivalent to 100% in 10.4 minutes.
Average charge current is 17.2Amps, I'm sure it was just a simple math error loosing one order of magnitude.
(NB. this is a charge rate of 5.76C)
Yep, full charge is unlikely in 10.4 min (at this [C] charge rate), as the charge voltage must be reduced at the top end, to allow complete charging and avoid cell voltage exceeding 4.2(~1-5) Volts (which may damace the cell and reduce its longevity).