The days of taking hours to recharge batteries could be a thing of the past after US boffins have made a cell which can recharge in 10 to 20 seconds. Cells made in the usual way would take six minutes to charge.

Gerbrand Ceder, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) said it would be possible to charge your phone while you stand and wait.”

Dubbed the “beltway battery”, after the orbital motorway in Washington DC, the design is a bypass system that lets lithium ions that carry charge to enter and leave the battery more quickly. Since it only requires changes to the ways that manufacturing lithium-ion battery materials are made, rather than a new material, it could be ready within two to three years, the researchers said.

It could mean that electric car batteries may be able to charge in less than an hour, and remove the main barrier to wider uptake of the vehicles. Solar and wind power generation could also benefit as better batteries could be used to store surplus energy.