Recent advances of Li-Ion battery technology could be the kick start the faltering electric vehicle market needs for it to go main stream. As well as the fast charge time the new battery can be cycled more than 10,000 times and has a lifespan of 20 years.

The work carried out at NTU Singapore replaces the traditional graphite anode with one made from titanium dioxide, an abundant, cheap and safe material found in soil. It is commonly used as a food additive and in sunscreen lotions. Before the material can be used it is converted into fine nanotubes which allows faster chemical reactions in the cell giving it super fast recharge times.

The new battery technology was invented by Associate Professor Chen Xiaodong from the School of Materials Science and Engineering at NTU Singapore and described in a paper published in the latest edition of ‘Advanced Materials’. The technology is currently being licensed by a company for eventual production. Prof Chen expects that the new generation of fast-charging batteries will come to market in the next two years.

According to Prof Chen “Electric cars will be able to increase their range dramatically, with just five minutes of charging, which is on a par with the time needed to pump gas for current cars, equally important, we can now drastically cut down the toxic waste generated by disposed batteries, since our batteries last ten times longer than the current generation of lithium-ion batteries.”