Fully Charged in Just 12 Minutes! Korean Scientists Develop Next-Gen Lithium–Sulfur Battery

This is more accurate than you would think. I've seen people synthesize a new inorganic compound, and is then more or less forced by supervisors to test it as an intercalation host for Li- or Na-ion batteries without really having thought through whether that makes sense at all.

Li is small, and as long as there is room for it (sites for it to sit when intercalated and paths to diffuse through the material), and there is some species that can accommodate the additional charge (as one Li+ is introduced into the material, there needs to be a charge compensation to maintain charge neutrality - typically this is a transition metal cation that is reduced from a higher oxidation state to a lower one). In that sense a lot of materials could serve as hosts, and depending on the intercalation potential, it could be used as a cathode (LiCoO2 for instance, where the intercalation potential vs. Li/Li+ is so high that it makes for a good cathode) or an anode (LTO for instance, where the intercalation potential vs. Li/Li+ is so low that it rather makes sense to pair it with a high potential cathode, and instead make for a more niche application where things such as safety is more coveted). That said, only three structure types have been widely used commercially as intercalation hosts for Li-ion batteries: layered rocksalt types (like LiCoO2 and its deriviates, NMC and NCA), spinels (LiMn2O4 or LTO) or olivines (LiFePO4, or LFP).

Li-S is not someone randomly mixing Li with some other elements though, it has been researched for a long time and is considered one of several "holy grails"

Followed by advertising it and never releasing the new tech.

That’s because lithium is in the most electropositive group of elements and sodium/potassium are too reactive for current technology. Theoretically I think Na and K based batteries should perform better as they’re even more electropositive than Li.

(Forgive the spelling error in the picture but it was the simplest one I could find quickly)

You aren't so far away from the truth!

To make a battery you need to have something that holds negative electrical charge and something with a positive electrical charge and both need to be able to change to a different state when you use it or reverse that change when you charge it.

Lithium is the lightest and smallest metal, meaning for the same size and electrical charge, your battery will weigh less.

Then you just need to find ways to make two kind of lithium compounds which have different electrical charge and can be changed between two states.

And if it doesn't explode when a child throws their battery powered bear on the ground, that would also be a good characteristic.

Change lithium with Group IV elements and that's also how semiconductors are made: playing around with different impurities.

Flow batteries specifically don't use Lithium and are very promising in price to performance https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/jan/03/flow-batteries-are-the-future-of-renewable-energy-and-australia-could-be-a-world-leader-if-theres-funding

Ok it has the 'capacity' to charge in 12 minutes - can you smell smoke?

I agree, the title is pretty useless.

Even something like "Fully charged a double A battery in 28 seconds" would've been useful/interesting.

It's not, if you charge any capacity with 1C, it will take an hour. Looks like they achieved stable charging at over 4C (charging current in amperes 4x larger than stated capacity in amp-hours).

EDIT: C is not Coulomb in this case

What the general public thinks: Car or phone battery.
What the scientists mean: Button cell battery for hearing aids.
Reality: never makes it past the article/news cycle to scalable manufacture.

Or indeed how much it weighs.

Indeed. A modern Nissan Leaf with a 62 kWh battery can charge in a little over 11 minutes if you have a 2kV 160 amp line to toss into it. Because you know, it's completely safe and cool to deal with those kinds of values for the average consumer.

If only the claim were accompanied by a detailed explanation of what the people involved have actually achieved.

But the battery technology did improve in these years.

You need to look at battery lab research on a 10-20 year time before it gets commercialized at scale.

Moreover, go look at your rechargeable batteries from 10 or 20 years ago. They’re heavier, less energy dense, have shorter lifespans, have much slower charge rates. A lot of those advancement started in a lab and look many years to make it to your laptop or car.

You're expecting revolution. You're getting evolution.

In my lifetime, about the only rechargeable battery the average person had in their home was the one in their car. Now we've added 4 new major battery chemistries to the commercial space, some with multiple variants within them and all with improvements throughout their lifetimes. This is what science and technology looks like. The results you're looking for would be magic or wishful thinking.

Well, it only looks like nothing because our power demands have increased as well.

Current Lithium Ion Polymer batteries are a far cry from the ones of a decade ago, despite being very similar tech.

The main issue with most of these alternative battery approaches are either low capacity, or low charge cycles. Finding a chemistry that both packs enough power in a small enough package to run devices for long term, and that don't wear out quickly is difficult.

How many years?

The amount of utility I accidentally extract from my phone over the course of a day on one charge is pretty incredible.

Writing headlines is a selection process. You write about all the useless but cool stuff while ignoring all the boring but important stuff.

Improving Li-ion by 1% doesn’t make headlines, but that sort of stuff has been going on in the background for a few decades already. That’s why current batteries are so useful and widespread.

Lab prototypes are sexy, even if they’re 50 years away from becoming commercially viable. Sure, these things can charge fast, or hold a huge capacity, but they also tend to die after 10 cycles. Fixing that is going to take a long time, just like it did for Li-ion batteries.

It doesn't have to be better it just has to be Goodenough.

Lots of small, incremental improvements. The news predictably is always promising a huge breakthrough

The latest Chinese smartphones use new S/C batteries. They have a capacity of 6000-7000 mAh with even less overall weight.

New battery tech HAS changed the world though. We wouldn't have modem EVs, smartphones, etc with the batteries of yesteryear.

Then get out of technology and start reading posts in buy it for life.