Smartphones could charge in seconds, last for a week with new battery alternative

Smartphones could charge in seconds, last for a week with new battery alternative

(Courtesy of University of Central Florida)


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ORLANDO, Fla. — A phone with a battery that lasts for a week and only takes seconds to charge may sound too good to be true, but a team of scientists say they have designed a working supercapacitor that can do just that.

With further development, the scientists from the University of Central Florida's NanoScience Technology Center​ hope their thin, flexible supercapacitor could replace the batteries that are currently used in smartphones and other devices to extend usage time. While current lithium-ion batteries typically degrade after about 18 months or 1,500 charges, the supercapacitor can be recharged more than 30,000 times without degrading, according to UCF.

"It's not ready for commercialization," said team member Yeonwoong Eric Jung in a news release. "But this is a proof-of-concept demonstration, and our studies show there are very high impacts for many technologies."

The UCF team is not the first to consider using supercapacitors as replacements for modern batteries, but it did find a new way to leverage the technology. Its supercapacitor are "composed of millions of nanometer-thick wires coated with shells of two-dimensional materials" with a "highly conductive core (that) facilitates fast electron transfer for fast charging and discharging," according to UCF.

A new supercapacitator developed by a team at the University of Central Florida could dramatically improve the performance of smartphones. (Photo: Courtesy of University of Central Florida)
A new supercapacitator developed by a team at the University of Central Florida could dramatically improve the performance of smartphones. (Photo: Courtesy of University of Central Florida)

"There have been problems in the way people incorporate these two-dimensional materials into the existing systems — that's been a bottleneck in the field," Jung said. "We developed a simple chemical synthesis approach so we can very nicely integrate the existing materials with the two-dimensional materials."

Research about the supercapacitors was recently published in the journal ACS Nano. The UCF team is currently working on a patent for its work.


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About the Author: Natalie Crofts \--------------------------------

Natalie Crofts is a freelance journalist from Portland, Oregon who is obsessed with sunshine, news and food. She worked as a reporter at KSL.com for three years and loved her job, which included managing the site's Tech section. Now, she's studying at Carnegie Mellon University to earn a graduate degree in public policy. Follow her on Twitter (@njcrofts).

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