Toshiba's New Lithium-Ion Battery Recharges in Only One Minute

[DmitryKo]

http://www.toshiba.co.jp/about/press/2005_03/pr2901.htm

Toshiba's New Rechargeable Lithium-Ion Battery Recharges in Only One Minute
TOKYO -- Toshiba Corporation today announced a breakthrough in lithium-ion batteries that makes long recharge times a thing of the past. The company's new battery can recharge 80% of a battery's energy capacity in only one minute, approximately 60 times faster than the typical lithium-ion batteries in wide use today, and combines this fast recharge time with performance-boosting improvements in energy density.

The new battery fuses Toshiba's latest advances in nano-material technology for the electric devices sector with cumulative know-how in manufacturing lithium-ion battery cells. A breakthrough technology applied to the negative electrode uses new nano-particles to prevent organic liquid electrolytes from reducing during battery recharging. The nano-particles quickly absorb and store vast amount of lithium ions, without causing any deterioration in the electrode.

The excellent recharging characteristics of new battery are not its only performance advantages. The battery has a long life cycle, losing only 1% of capacity after 1,000 cycles of discharging and recharging, and can operate at very low temperatures. At minus 40 degrees centigrade, the battery can discharge 80% of its capacity, against 100% in an ambient temperature of 25 degree centigrade).

Toshiba will bring the new rechargeable battery to commercial products in 2006. Initial applications will be in the automotive and industrial sectors, where the slim, small-sized battery will deliver large amounts of energy while requiring only a minute to recharge. For example, the battery's advantages in size, weight and safety highly suit it for a role as an alternative power source for hybrid electric vehicles.

Toshiba expects that the high energy density and excellent recharge performance of the new battery will assure its successful application as a new energy solution in many areas of society.

Major Specifications of New Battery
1) Excellent Recharge Performance - The thin battery recharges to 80% of full capacity in only a minute. Total recharge takes only a few more minutes.
2) High Energy Density - Small and light, the new battery offers a high level of storage efficiency. The prototype battery is only 3.8mm thick, 62mm high and 35mm deep and has a capacity of 600mAh
3) Long Life Cycle - A prototype of new battery (a laminated lithium ion battery with 600mAh capacity) was discharged and fully recharged 1,000 times at a temperature of 25 degrees centigrade and lost only 1% of capacity during the test.
4) Wide Temperature Range - The new battery discharges 80% of its capacity at minus 40 degrees centigrade, against 100% at an ambient temperature of 25 degrees centigrade, and loses only 5% of capacity at temperatures as high as 45 degrees centigrade after 1,000 cycles. These characteristics assure the wide applicability of the battery as a power source for products as diverse as hybrid vehicles and mobile phones.
5) Eco-friendly Battery - The new battery can quickly store energy produced by locomotives and automobiles. This speedy and highly effective recharge characteristic of the battery will support CO2 reduction, as the battery can save and re-use energy that was simply wasted before.

[asakas]

Wow, that's amazing, I can think of a hundred applications off the top of my head, but the important part too.... how expensive is it to make?

Cost cost cost

[Sparta]

I'll take one in an Ipod, ty.

[Kar Krazie]

I'll take one in my laptop!

[01cavalier]

Ill take one for my laptop, PDA, digital camera, cellphone....hell, good use for a hybrid car, may really help boost the effeciency!

[surferdude00711]

"Supercharged Battery".
Forced induction on a battery that small isn't good. They should have used a turbo. The s.c. probably knocked 50 decawatts off the batteries power numbers right off the top!

[rickhunter1max]

poop dam thats fast cost cost cost

I need it for my Lowrider

[OzoneGTX]

I read about this somewhere a while ago. I heard it's all good, but it runs really hot.

[PontiacBixler]

Put one in my iBook and call me tickled pink!
It's only natural that batteries would get to the point where if your laptop dies, you plug it in and within 5 minutes you have 4-5 more hours of usage. A heck of a lot better than it taking 30-60 minutes for most laptops to recoop all of it's battery power.

[FoMoCo Fan]

Another reason to put money on plug in electric cars rather than more cumbersome, expensive and inefficent hydrogen concepts.

[ChevroletRevived]

Well I partly agree with you, FoMoCo. I think we should have full battery electric cars available with new technologies like this. BUT, I do beleive thatwe should still continue pursuing Hydrogen also. This is good. Very interesting..charges in only one minute...but how long does it run?

[goblue]

Originally Posted by ChevroletRevived

Well I partly agree with you, FoMoCo. I think we should have full battery electric cars available with new technologies like this. BUT, I do beleive thatwe should still continue pursuing Hydrogen also. This is good. Very interesting..charges in only one minute...but how long does it run?

Sorry, but I disagree - H2 requires breakthroughs on the order of fission to become reality. The future is here now, and you're looking at it. All we have to do now is make it cheaper and larger - something we're very, very good at. Its coming up with the thing in the first place thats the hard part - scaling it up is not - just a matter of time.

[bakerna]

Originally Posted by ChevroletRevived

Well I partly agree with you, FoMoCo. I think we should have full battery electric cars available with new technologies like this. BUT, I do beleive thatwe should still continue pursuing Hydrogen also. This is good. Very interesting..charges in only one minute...but how long does it run?

The capacity of a battery is measured in ampere-hours, that being that the battery will maintain a draw of one amp for an hour. This battery will maintain a draw of 0.6 amp for an hour (rated @ 600 mA, 1000 mA in one amp). The average auto battery has a rating of about 60 Ah, or can maintain a draw of 60 amps for an hour.

[DmitryKo]

Some quick analysis.

The backup battery in the latest Toyota Prius has a total of 168 NiMH 1.2 V cells, which are organized serially to get 200 V. Total capacity of the battery is 6.6 Ah which means each cell in the array is rated at the same 6.6 Ah or 6600 mAh.

Lead acid batteries are capable of up to 100 Ah, but at much lower 12 V, that is 17 times as low. So, total energy of the Prius' battery is in fact higher in comparison to a standard lead acid one.


Now this new Li-Ion cell from Toshiba is rated at 3.6 V 600 mAh, so in order to get the desired 200 V, you need to combine 55 Li-Ion cells in series, which is three times as low comparing to NiMH cells. The capacity of this Li-Ion cell is far from 6600 mAh, but it's only 1/3 as thick as the most capable prismatic Li-Ion batteries, rated at the same 1800 mAh as 3 thinner ones. And cylindrical Li-Ion series are rated at even higher 2200 mAh while occupying the same volume.

As the total weight of the Prius' battery is 45 Kg, each of 168 1.2V 6600 mAh NiMH cells used there weighs around 220 g, and 3.6 V 2200 mAh Li-Ion cell is only 50 g. To make up the desired 6600 mAh capacity, you need to use 3 parallel 200 V arrays each containing 55 Li-Ion cells.

So it seems like the 200 V 6.6 Ah battery will use around 170 standard cells in either configuration, but Li-Ion version will be around 4.5 times lighter. Suggesting that the Prius uses standard D-size cylindrical NiMH cells (D33 mm, H60 mm, 220 g), both prismatic and cylindrical Li-Ion cells will also occupy only one third of the volume. Which means you can replace NiMH cells with Li-Ion cells right now to get 3 times as much energy in the same volume and twice as low weight.


Now to the charging current. Modern NiMH cells can be charged with 1C curent at 1 hour, which means Prius battery could possibly be recharged by a 220V 7A power outlet for something around 1 hour as well. Li-Ion batteries can be charged in the same manner as well.

I'd expect the promoted decrease in charging time to be attribute to new materials and technology, not the increased charge current, so dissipated heat shouldn't increase substantially. But even if the new cell runs hotter, I believe it can still be safely charged with say C/5 current for 5x the charging time, just like any cell before.


Taking all this into account and considering increased temperature range and longevity, this cell is a clear winner for electric vehicle application to me! Now this is where economies of scale could make somewhat larger and capable cells more practical due to additional cost savings.


More to read:
Toyota measuring "time on the lot" for Prius in HOURS - But is it all just Hype?
Mitsubishi Motors to drive forward development of next-generation EVs
http://www.gpbatteries.com.hk/html/techinfo/li_ion.asp
http://www.gpbatteries.com.hk/html/techinfo/nimh.asp

[Smashing1]

Originally Posted by DmitryKo

Some quick analysis.

If that's your quick analysis, I would be interested in seeing your long, drawn out analysis. Thanks for all the info.