A faster route to battery charging developed by researchers in China could conceivably result in more electric vehicles (EVs) on the road. Speedier charging is realized by adding a copper coating and nanowires to the anode of a lithium-ion battery.

The design overcomes the inefficiency posed by graphite anodes constructed in a non-ordered slurry,Simulation of lithium ion concentration distribution in the dual-gradient and random graphite anode based on the reconstructed 3D structure of the fabricated electrodes. Source: Shu-Hong Yu et al. resulting in gaps that impede electrical current and prevent fast charging. The researchers turned to particle-level theoretical modeling to optimize the spatial distributions of different sized particles and electrode porosity. Applying the modeling results, a standard graphite anode was coated with copper and copper nanowires were added to the slurry. The anode was then heated and cooled, which served to compress the slurry into a more ordered material. The resulting dual-gradient device has smaller particles and more porosity on the top and bigger particles and less porosity on the bottom.

With the revised anode architecture, a standard lithium-ion battery was charged to 60% in just 5.6 minutes (as opposed to 40% for a control battery with no alterations) and to 80% in just 11.4 minutes.

The research conducted by scientists from the University of Science and Technology of China and Chinese Academy of Sciences is published in Science Advances.