California:  What if the battery in your smartphone or electric car can be charged fully in 10 minutes flat?

Researchers have developed new architecture for lithium-ion battery anodes that far outperform the current standard. The three-dimensional, silicon-decorated, cone-shaped carbon-nanotube cluster architecture for lithium-ion battery anodes could enable charging of portable electronic equipment in barely 10 minutes instead of hours.

“Lithium-ion batteries based on this novel architecture demonstrate a high reversible capacity and excellent cycling stability,” said lead study author Wei Wang from Bourns College of Engineering at the University of California, Riverside.

The architecture demonstrates excellent electrochemical stability and irreversibility even at high charge and discharge rates — nearly 16 times faster than conventionally used graphite-based anodes.

Silicon is a type of anode material that is receiving a lot of attention because its total charge capacity is 10 times higher than commercial graphite-based lithium-ion battery anodes.