Samsung’s fiasco with the Galaxy Note 7 last year put it in an odd position. On the one hand, it has to be extra careful about how it presents battery technology for as long as people remember the Galaxy Note 7. But, on the other hand, it is also pressured to develop new battery technologies that will prevent such things from happening again. The company’s Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT) has just revealed one such new battery that could charge five times faster than today’s conventional batteries by using graphene balls.

Graphene has somewhat become the panacea of many battery ailments and the basis on which new batteries are being developed. Considered to be more stable than the chemical dynamites inside our batteries, graphene is also touted to conduct electrical charge faster.

How much faster? SAIT says 140 times faster than silicon. It new batteries make use of “graphene balls” that will only take 12 minutes to fully charge. That’s faster than even the fastest fast charging tech in the market today. Current batteries charge to full in an hour at the very least.

But fast charging times, which generates more heat, will naturally bring up questions about safety. Samsung, who has been bitten hard by this problem, says that the batteries can maintain stability at 60 degrees Celsius. That’s safe enough to be used even for electric vehicles. Samsung, after all, does make batteries for more than just mobile devices.

Samsung says it has applied for patents both in Korea as well as in the US. That, of course, doesn’t mean that the batteries do already work as advertised. Or that Samsung will even be making batteries using that technology. For now, we can only hope and keep on bringing our power banks in our bags.

VIA: The Investor