Huawei shows super-fast battery charging at Japan event

November 16, 2015
Published in Technology

Batteries that charge in minutes, the very concept is an attention-grabber. Huawei believes it has taken a real step forward and has videos to demonstrate its successful experiments with super-fast battery charging.

"Huawei has developed a new quick-charge lithium-ion battery that can juice up smartphone^[1] and tablet power supplies 10 times faster than current ones," said Yibada.

Huawei carried out quick-charging –two minutes and five minutes—demos of its lithium-ion batteries. The company said, "one battery with a 600 mAh capacity" could be charged to 68 percent capacity in two minutes; another "with a 3000 mAh capacity and an energy density above 620 Wh/L" could be charged to 48 percent capacity in five minutes "to allow ten hours^[2] of phone call on Huawei mobile phones."

Sead Fadilpašić in ITProPortal said the unveiling of batteries took place at the Battery Symposium in Japan.

The battery is based on the same lithium ion chemistry used in today's phone batteries today but derives advantage from "atoms of graphite bonded to the anode," said Martyn Williams of IDG News Service.

The Huawei's Watt Lab, which showed the new batteries, is focused on energy storage development and it "works closely with industry partners" said the company in pursuing "a new energy era."

That new era is desired sooner than later.

Williams remarked that "Advances in battery technology^[3] have lagged other areas of technology and battery life remains a limiting factor for gadgets such as phones and larger products^[4] like electric vehicles."

Yibada pointed out that the announcement comes at a time when smartphone makers continue to design thinner and lighter models, the wrinkle being that the devices have a much shorter battery life^[5].

Williams said what Huawei's advancement means, according to Huawei, is "faster charging but not at the expense of usage life or a sacrifice in the amount of energy that can be stored in each battery^[6]."

How they did it: Fadilpašić said Huawei according to the company "bonded heteroatoms to the molecule of graphite in anode, which could be a catalyst for the capture and transmission of lithium through carbon bonds^[7]. Huawei stated that the heteroatoms increase the charging speed of batteries without decreasing energy^[8] density or battery life^[9]."

One definition states that "heteroatom" refers to any atom in a heterocyclic ring or other structure^[10] normally built of carbon atoms that is not a carbon atom.

Another quick definition from Yibada said it refers to "ring-shaped non-carbon/hydrogen atoms^[11]."

Reports said there was not yet information on dates for when the new battery^[12] charging tech will be available in consumer products.