Samsung develops battery technology that charges 5 times faster

SEOUL – Samsung Electronics has developed battery technology which will speed up the charging process by five times the current standards, South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported on Monday (Nov 27).

According to the news agency, the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology said the graphene-based battery will come with 45 per cent higher capacity compared with existing models on the market.

Graphene is a form of carbon that is considered an ideal material to be applied to batteries, as it can move electricity 140 times faster than silicon. Samsung said batteries applied with "graphene balls" will take 12 minutes to be fully charged, while it takes an hour for existing batteries.

The new batteries can also be used in electric automobiles, as they can maintain stability at up to 60 degrees Celsius.

The institute’s research was posted in a scientific journal, Nature Communications. While the lithium-ion batteries were first commercialised in 1991, industry watchers say the technology has been facing limits in terms of capacity and charging speed. The latest research may serve as a breakthrough for the global battery industry, experts said.

The Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology said it has applied for patents in South Korea and the United States regarding the new findings.

The breakthrough came more than a year after Samsung Electronics was left red-faced, and facing civil lawsuits due to a battery problem. In October last year, Samsung Electronics announced that it will permanently end the production and sales of the Galaxy Note 7, following multiple reports of incidents that the phone’s battery caught fire. Samsung commenced a total recall of the Note 7 in early September last year, citing that the faulty battery was to blame. AGENCIES