California teenager invents device that can charge cell phone in 20 seconds - flat

Catholic Online ^ | May 20, 2013

[NYer]

Called the supercapacitor, this revolutionary device can charge cell phones within 20 seconds. The brainchild of 18-year-old Esha Khare of Saratoga, California, the lucky teen collected $50,000 at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Phoenix, Arizona this week.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic online) - The device is sure to make waiting around for your cell phone to recharge a thing of the past, In addition, the gizmo packs more energy into a smaller space than traditional phone batteries -- and holds the charge longer.

Khare traveled from her California home to Phoenix last week for the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, where her invention was honored as one of two winners of Young Scientist Awards.

"I'm in a daze. I can't believe this happened," Khare, a senior at Lynbrook High School in Saratoga, she told reporters.

Khare has only used her supercapacitor to power a light-emitting diode or LED. She envisions a bright future that one day will see her invention powering cell phones, cars and any gadget that requires a rechargeable battery.

On her way to Harvard, Khare told TV journalists that this is only the start and that she will "be setting the world on fire" from here.

Specializing in nano-chemistry, Khare was able to reduce the size of her invention. "Really working at the nano-scale to make significant advances in many different fields," she says.
 
"It is also flexible, so it can be used in rollup displays and clothing and fabric," Khare added. "It has a lot of different applications and advantages over batteries in that sense."

Flexible and tiny, the supercapacitor is able to handle 10,000 recharge cycles, more than normal batteries by a factor of 10.

[NYer]

[stephenjohnbanker]

Winner for my needs!

[Buckeye McFrog]

And it will allow him to travel back to the year 1985...

[C210N]

Of course, to make this work, the charger applies 100,000 volts rather then the usual 24 or so.

Next version will hopefully increase the number of times you can charge your Lithium Ion cell phone battery to two!

[Uncle Miltie]

Happy New Story of the day!

[nascarnation]

On her way to Harvard

Another potential great American down the tubes.....

[stephenjohnbanker]

LOL!

[stephenjohnbanker]

Harvard kills brain cells.

[martin_fierro]

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[11th Commandment]

$50K ??? someone needs to tell this young ignorant mind that creating a worthless website that is attractive to a large cash rich tech companies pays a lot more.

[Blood of Tyrants]

It is a nice idea, but charging a battery causes the battery to heat up and the faster you charge it, the hotter it gets. Trying to charge it in 20 seconds would most likely destroy a battery. Now, I can see the application used to store energy lost while braking in a car and then being released when you want to speed up.

[who_would_fardels_bear]

"she will "be setting the world on fire"

The problem with supercapacitors is that when they fail it is because of a catastrophic short that can result in sparks and fire.

I would like to know what her mom and dad do for a living.

I imagine the mom is a stay at home housewife and the dad runs a struggling car repair shop.

Evidently she learned everything about nanoscale manufacture of supercapacitors by Googling Wikipedia and other sites.

[Norm Lenhart]

When the cap blows she WILL be setting the world on fire...literally.

[Slump Tester]

That can’t be any good for the battery.

[a fool in paradise]

Of course, the phone may not work well afterwards...

[CodeToad]

How does a battery handle a charge rate that exceeds its amperage and chemical capacity without destroying the battery?

[mwilli20]

Don’t you just love eager reporters with a failing basic science education? This woman invented ... a capacitor?

No explanation of how her device is innovative over existing capacitors.

Also why put the “cell phone” in the title? She just powered an LED with her “invention”!

And finally, she did not invent a device that can charge a phone!!!

[nascarnation]

That can’t be any good for the battery.

There you go, injecting the harsh reality of physics into this wonderful feel good story.....

[Secret Agent Man]

Downside is your phone has a one in five chance of starting on fire.

[mwilli20]

Failure of journalism. Her work seems to concentrate on capacitors rather than batteries. Capacitors can charge and discharge very quickly.

Of course, as who_would_fardels_bear points out in post 12 rapid discharge of large amounts of energy can be pretty spectacular in both heat and light, as well as sound. ;-)

Nothing new, here, just basic physics...