The United States has developed a new battery anode that can increase battery capacity and charging speed by 10 times

A team of Northwestern University researchers has created a lithium-ion battery anode that could give the battery ten times the capacity of existing technology.

The researchers also say that batteries using the new electrodes could also be charged ten times faster than existing batteries.

In current rechargeable batteries, the electrodes are made of thin layers of carbon-based graphite, which can accommodate one lithium atom for every six carbon atoms.

By sandwiching clusters of silicon between graphite sheets, the researchers were able to multiply the number of lithium atoms that the electrode could accommodate, while also tuning the flexibility of the graphite sheets to accommodate changes in silicon capacity.

The researchers also used a chemical oxidation process to create 10-20nm holes in graphite sheets, reducing the time required to fully charge the battery tenfold.

The next stage will be to study changes to the cathode to further improve battery efficiency.

Researchers say the technology could be commercially available in the next three to five years.

The U.S. Department of Energy's Frontier Energy Research Center's Basic Energy Sciences program is funding the research.