Let’s face it, the main burden of electrical products is the time they take to charge – be they mp3 players, power tools, or even electric cars. However, this could soon be a problem of the past, as New York-based company Ioxus has developed a new type of lithium ion ultracapacitor that can potentially deliver large amounts of energy in a small amount of time.

Continue reading below Our Featured Videos

Ioxus specialises in high performance ultracapacitors and hybrid-capacitors that are meant for devices with high performance but low resistance. In theory, this makes them ideal for items that require large amounts of power for acceleration, energy capture, or ‘high power application’ – such as power tools.

With Ioxus’ new hybrid energy-storage device, which connects a lithium-ion battery to an ultracapacitor, everyday power tools could be fully recharged in less than a minute. Not just that, but the tools will be capable of receiving up to 20,000 charges. This means that the construction industry will no longer have to wait hours for electric drills or lathes to charge; they could be done in less time than it takes to make a cup of coffee.

However, currently the power tools work for only 1/15 as long as they would run on a normal battery. While lithium-ion ultracapacitors store charge at the surface of the electrodes, traditional lithium-ion batteries store charge within the electrodes. Traditional ultracapacitors store only 5 percent as much energy as lithium-ion batteries, whereas the new hybrid system is able to store two times as much as classic ultracapacitors, even though this quantity is much smaller than the one accumulated by traditional lithium-ion batteries.

The new product has huge potential. It could lead to hybrids being fully charged in mere minutes and improve the life cycles of electric vehicles. Currently, vehicle braking systems demand recharging hundreds of thousands of times, but that would not be the case with a lithium-ion ultracapacitor.

+ Ioxus

via Green Optimistic