After just a few seconds of charging, a new battery technology could offer days or even weeks of phone life.
New Battery Tech
Scientists at the University of Central Florida (UCF) recently have developed a new process for creating a supercapacitor battery concept. According to The Age, this new technology provides great advantages over previous battery tech, because supercapacitors can store more power and can be recharged more times. The new method can be used in various applications ranging from electronic gadgets to mobile phones and even electric vehicles.
The high-powered battery with supercapacitors allows storing a large amount of energy. The new process has been developed by a research team at the NanoScience Technology Center, part of the University of Central Florida. Their research has concluded that current smartphone batteries degrade and start to lose power faster after just six months.
In order to store and discharge energy, existing batteries use various chemical reactions that take time to occur. Because they store energy statically on the surface of the material, supercapacitors charge quickly. The new battery is a small, thin piece of metal that could also be used in wearables, such as fitness trackers and smart watches.
Advantages of Supercapacitor Batteries
According to Battery University in Canada, batteries based on the new technology can be charged more than 30,000 times. Ther lifespan would greatly outlast current lithium ion phone batteries that have a lifespan of between 300 and 500 charges. According to the UCF researchers, even the best lithium-ion batteries typically cannot last beyond 1500 charges.
According to International Business Times, Nitin Choudhary, who conducted the research, said that by replacing the batteries with supercapacitors your mobile phone's battery would not need recharged for over a week and could be charged in just a few seconds. According to Engadget, the new method can lead to building high-capacity batteries that could contain power 20 times longer than a standard lithium-ion battery.
Scientists have been exploring the usability of nanomaterial to improve supercapacitors that could replace batteries in electronics devices. But there is a problem, as a supercapacitor that can hold as much power as a lithium-ion battery, would need to be much larger. Choudhary said that for small electronic devices, the materials created by the UCF scientists are surpassing the conventional ones worldwide in terms of cyclic stability, power density and energy density.
An assistant professor working with the NanoScience Technology Center and the Materials Science & Engineering Department, Yeonwoong "Eric" Jung, who is working with the UCF team to patent the new process, said that the new technology is not ready yet for commercialization. However, their studies show that there is very high potential for many technologies of this proof-of-concept demonstration.
We all hope that this new battery technology will soon pass from concept to commercial use. After all, battery life is one of the most annoying issues to our daily life gadgets, from smartphones to wearables. A battery that charges in seconds and lasts for weeks? Who won't like that?
