New technology aim at saving time and a bendable battery that could charge a smartphone in 60 seconds perfectly fits in that category. Scientists of Stanford University have invented a flexible, high-performance aluminium battery that charges in about 1 minute and can go from flat to full in a fraction of the time it currently takes to pull in enough electricity to fully charge a phone, laptop or tablet. IPhone 6 takes around two hours to fully charge its in-built battery, if it was fitted with the aluminium power source it would be completely topped up in around 60 seconds.

The new bendable battery will keep going for more than seven times as long as a lithium-ion battery and a traditional battery can be recharged around 1000 times, while the aluminium battery can withstand 7500 cycles. Hongjie Dai, Professor of chemistry at Stanford University, said that their battery has everything else one did dream that a battery should have i.e. inexpensive electrodes, good safety, high-speed charging, flexibility and long cycle life.

Stanford graduate student Ming Gong said that lithium batteries could go off in an unpredictable manner and besides safety, had achieved major breakthroughs in aluminium battery performance. Gong concluded that another feature of the aluminium battery was flexibility as one could bend it and fold it, so it had the potential for use in flexible electronic devices also.

By Premji