Fast-Charging EV Batteries With Nickel Foil

IEEE Spectrum reports that "Standard electric-vehicle batteries can recharge much of their range in just 10 minutes with the addition of a thin sheet of nickel inside them, a new study finds."This could provide a welcome and economically attractive alternative to expensive EVs that carry massive and massively expensive battery packs. If faster-charging options were available, enabling the EV's sticker price to drop substantially, some researchers suspect consumers' EV phobia and industry dogma against "range anxiety" could be overcome.... In the new study, researchers experimented with a lithium-ion battery with a roughly 560-kilometer range when fully charged. (The battery's energy density was 265 watt-hours-per-kilogram.) By adding an ultrathin nickel foil to its interior [to heat the battery quickly], they could recharge it to 70 percent in 11 minutes for a roughly 400-km range, and 75 percent in 12 minutes for a roughly 440-km range. "Our technology enables smaller, faster-charging batteries to be deployed for mass adoption of affordable electric cars," says study senior author Chao-Yang Wang, a battery engineer at Pennsylvania State University.... The scientists detailed their findings online in the journal Nature. Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader gunner2028 for sharing the story.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.