.The researchers believe they have invented a cheap, long-lasting and flexible battery made of aluminium for use in smartphones that can be charged in as little as one minute.

According to the popular science mag Nature, which we get for the Spot the God Particle competition, the new aluminium-ion battery has the potential to replace lithium-ion batteries, used in millions of laptops and mobile phones.

They don't just charge faster, they don't have the tendency to explode in the same way that lithium-ion batteries manage.

Aluminium is a lightweight and relatively inexpensive metal that has high charging capacity but for some reason making it into a battery is a little tricky..

A team lead by chemistry professor Hongjie Dai at Stanford University in California made a breakthrough by accidentally discovering that graphite made a good partner to aluminium.

In a prototype, aluminium was used to make the negatively-charged anode while graphite provided material for the positively charged cathode.

While lithium-ion batteries last about 1,000 cycles, the new aluminium battery was able to continue after more than 7,500 cycles without loss of capacity.

Ideal for iPhone

It also can be bent or folded which makes it ideal for Apple phone which makes a feature of bending.

Larger aluminium batteries could also be used to store renewable energy on the electrical grid, Dai said.

The only downside is that wars will be fought over how to spell aluminium, which the Americans have never quite been able to do correctly.