Scientists at the Stanford University in California have announced their breakthrough in developing a new type of super slim battery.
The new aluminum power cell is far safer than existing lithium technology and can be bent and damaged without catching fire Sky News reported on Tuesday.
The researchers at the Californian university say the battery can be charged repeatedly without losing its effectiveness. It also has the potential to be a major breakthrough as electricity storage becomes increasingly important with future technologies.
Hongjie Dai, professor of chemistry at Stanford, said: "We have developed a rechargeable aluminum battery that may replace existing storage devices, such as alkaline batteries, which are bad for the environment, and lithium-ion batteries, which occasionally burst into flames.
"Our new battery won't catch fire, even if you drill through it. Lithium batteries can go off in an unpredictable manner - in the air, the car or in your pocket."
Besides safety, the researcher added the team had transformed battery performance with "unprecedented charging times" of down to one minute.
Unlike previously developed aluminum batteries, which have been reported to die after just 100 charge-discharge cycles, the Stanford prototype has been found to withstand up to 7,500 charges.
This comes as a typical lithium battery lasts for 1,000 cycles.
In an article in this month's edition of the journal Nature, the authors wrote: "This was the first time an ultra-fast aluminum-ion battery was constructed with stability over thousands of cycles."
Ming Gong, co-lead author of the Nature study, added: "Another feature of the aluminum battery is flexibility.
"You can bend it and fold it, so it has the potential for use in flexible electronic devices. Aluminum is also a cheaper metal than lithium."
