What is the differences between a high discharge rate battery and a standard discharge rate battery  

Introduction

A battery has a high rate that is the charge and discharge capability of a lithium­ion polymer battery with respect to the standard rate. A high­rate battery is divided into a discharge rate and a charge rate, and a “C­Rating” is used to indicate the ratio of the charging and discharging current of a battery.

Normally, high discharge rate batteries can be fast charged. In high discharge rate batteries, the lithium ions are embedded in the negative graphite during charging whereas in the discharging portion, the lithium ions are embedded in the positive electrode. The act of embedding the lithium ions into the negative graphite requires more precision thus resulting in a lower charging rate than discharge.

Another distinction that can be made is how a high discharge rate battery will have better temperature stability and tolerance than regular discharge batteries.

There are two graphs to help us to understand these two batteries better.

Discharge curve

The first one is a discharge curve, or what’s known as a voltage plateau, of a normal battery and a high c­rate battery.

The capacity of the two batteries is the same, and the test current is 40C. We can see the discharge voltage of the high c­rate battery ( blue line ) is higher and how the voltage drop is smoother and the capacity greater.  

Furthermore, the high discharge battery provides a nominal voltage of 14.5V whereas the standard battery only provides that of 12.5V.  This is due to the low internal resistance of a higher C­rate, which results in lower losses during high current discharge.  This allows the discharge plateau and capacity to be maintained at a high level.

Fast charging time

The fellow picture represents a record of how long it takes to fully charge a normal and a high c­rate battery.  The red line represents a high c­rate battery fast charging at 3C. It only takes 15 minutes to fully charge. 

In contrast, the normal battery ( blue line ) charging at 1C, which takes a lot more time to fully charge.  Just based on this chart, you can see how a high rate battery saves about 60% more time fast charging than a normal battery charging at 1C.

Fast charge a standard battery

If you fast charge a normal battery, you can easily cause lithium stripping, or otherwise known as lithium plating of the lithium ions.  This leads to accelerated deterioration in battery performance.  In severe cases, you can cause an internal short circuit and/or even an explosion.

Most consumer applications require only 1C from their batteries. If you need higher discharge rates and faster charging times, you should definitely choose a high rate battery instead.

Application

High­rate batteries are widely used in a variety of fields, such as with drones for aerial and agricultural plant protection purposes, emergency power supplies, model aircraft ( RC ), power tools and many more.