Batteries for phones and laptops could soon recharge ten times faster and hold up to ten times as much power, with new Lithium-Ion batteries that are expected to hit the markets as early as three years.

A team of scientists at the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science appears to have cracked one of the thorniest problems of modern electrical engineering and made batteries using a hi-tech mix of sheets of carbon and silicon to supercharge today's lithium-ion batteries.

The technology uses Lithium-Ion batteries, the standard for current hi-tech appliances, such as smart phones, but with a new type of electrode, and could also make electrical cars far more practical.

"We have found a way to extend a new lithium-ion battery's charge life by 10 times. Even after a year of operation, the battery is still five times more effective than li-on batteries on the market today," the Daily Mail quoted Harold Kung, lead author of the study as saying. he breakthrough uses a mix of sheets of grapheme, atom-thick sheets of carbon and silicon, but with defects in the grapheme purposely added to allow ions to move faster through the batteries.

The result allows the batteries to store more charge, and to move it far more quickly.