Samsung Advanced Institute of Training (SAIT), a research wing of the South Korean company, has managed to synthesize a “graphene ball” through which lithium-ion batteries can be made to last longer and charge faster. In other words, it can increase the capacity of lithium-ion batteries by 45 percent as well as charge them five times faster.
The existing lithium-ion batteries can take around an hour to charge completely. The new technology can possibly reduce the charging time to just 12 minutes. It can be also used in electric cars in future as graphene ball batteries are able to maintain a temperature of 60 degrees Celsius.
The entire information on the findings of SAIT is available on Nature. SAIT created a three-dimensional graphene ball by synthesizing graphene with silica. The graphene balls were then used as anode and cathode for lithium-ion batteries. South Korea and the U.S. are the two regions were Samsung has filed a patent for this new technology.
The commercial use of lithium-ion batteries began in 1991 and since then it has been widely used in electronic devices. Because of its limitations, companies are now looking for alternatives. SAIT’s graphene ball technology appears very promising, but there is no guarantee whether Samsung will introduce it in its upcoming flagship smartphones like Galaxy S9 or Note 9.
SAIT is known for carrying out numerous technological innovations such as the development of the cadmium-free Quantum Dot materials that are used in Samsung’s flagship OLED TVs. In August, it had also opened an Artificial Intelligence (AI) lab in University of Montreal in Canada.
