Posted December 26, 2019

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – IBM scientists have created a new battery design that utilizes minerals from seawater as key ingrediants rather than heavy metals such as cobalt. And the new design has proved in tests to be more powerful while also charging much faster than conventional lithium-ion batteries.

Such a breakthrough could be a big boost for electric vehicles, the range of which is limit by current batter design.

“This discovery holds significant potential for electric vehicle batteries, for example, where concerns such as flammability, cost and charging time come into play,” wrote Dr. Young-HyeNa, manager of Materials Innovations for Next-Gen Batteries at IBM Research in a blog post.

‘Current tests show that less than five minutes are required for the battery–configured for high power -to reach an 80 percent state of charge. Combined with the relatively low cost of sourcing the materials, the goal of a fast-charging, low-cost electric vehicle could become a reality.”

IBM is already moving to advance the technology in partnership with several other firms, including Mercedes-Benz.

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