New Samsung battery could let you charge your phone up in 12 minutes

The new material could also be perfect for electric vehicles

Samsung Electronics' Galaxy S8 smartphones are displayed during a media event at a company's building in Seoul, South Korea, April 13, 2017 (Reuters)

A new battery material could allow you to recharge your mobile phone in just 12 minutes, Samsung says.

It could also help your phone last much longer off a single charge.

What’s more, Samsung says that batteries based on the material could also be perfect for electric vehicles.

The company has announced that researchers at the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT) have developed a new battery material it is calling a “graphene ball”.

According to Samsung, a battery based on graphene ball technology can be charged five times faster than a standard lithium-ion battery.

The material can also boost battery capacity by up to 45 per cent, which is a huge increase.

“In theory, a battery based on the ‘graphene ball’ material requires only 12 minutes to fully charge,” says Samsung.

“Additionally, the battery can maintain a highly stable 60 degree Celsius temperature, with stable battery temperatures particularly key for electric vehicles.”

The company says graphene is 100 times more effective than copper at conducting electricity, and is also an “ideal” material for fast charging.

“Lithium-ion batteries were first commercialized in 1991, and widely applied to markets for mobile devices and electric vehicles,” says Samsung.

“However, with standard lithium batteries requiring charging times of at least an hour to fully charge, even with quick charging technology, and considered to have reached their limit for capacity expansion, there have been numerous attempts to explore use of new innovative materials.

“Among the materials looked at, graphene has widely become the primary source of interest as the representative next generation material.”

It isn’t clear how soon graphene ball-based batteries could come to market, but Samsung says its findings “provide promise” for mobile devices and electric vehicles. The research has been published in the science journal Nature.