Researchers Tout Super-Thin Battery Material

Lithium-ion batteries equipped with anodes made of super-thin graphite could charge and discharge 10 times as fast as conventional batteries, according to researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y.

The scientists constructed the fast-acting anodes with layers of graphene, which they describe as the world's thinnest material. They used a laser or camera flash to deliberately crack the material, producing myriad pores and crevices that sharply increase electrolyte wetting and lithium ion access.

The Rensselaer team, led by nanomaterials researcher Nikhil Koratkar, say anodes made of "defect-engineered" graphene paper enable simpler lithium-ion batteries with more power density and the ability to quickly accept or discharge large amounts of energy.

The researchers report on their work in the current issue of ACS Nano. They describe their anode as strong, stable and able to maintain steady capacity and continuous power density over 1,000 charge/discharge cycles. They predict such electrodes could be mass produced using relatively simple and inexpensive production techniques.