Microbatteries Could Recharge Phones Instantly

Discovery ^ | 4/18/13 | Alyssa Danigelis

[LibWhacker]

Microbatteries Could Recharge Phones Instantly

Apr 18, 2013 07:43 AM ET // by

Alyssa Danigelis

Wouldn’t it be awesome to plug in a dead smart phone and have it fully charged in under a second? The wait won’t be long now for that leap. A team of scientists just developed what they say are the world’s most powerful microbatteries capable of near-instant recharging.

Supercharged! Battery Power for the Future

The new batteries are made high-power lithium ion and are only a few millimeters in size. IInside, they contain a 3-D nanostructure made from a thin film that was recently developed by Paul Braun from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He describes his system as providing “capacitor-like power with battery-like energy.” Graduate student James Pikul and team leader mechanical engineering and science professor William King, came up with an anode for it and then the the researchers put it all together in a tiny package. Their article was just published in the journal Nature Communications (abstract).

The scientists say their rechargeable microbatteries can charge a thousand times faster than similar technologies. In addition, the tiny size means these batteries could give a ton more capacity to smaller electronics like medical devices, sensors, lasers, and a wide range of consumer electronics.

Even Batteries are Bigger in Texas

The prospect of almost instantaneous phone recharging is impressive by itself, but the engineers also told the university that a phone powered by these batteries could even be used to jump-start a dead car battery. Then they could be fully recharged after another second. Holy cow.

As with any new battery tech, there’s still a lot of tinkering left to do before microbatteries come to our electronic devices. The team says it will be integrating their batteries with other electronics components and figuring out ways they could be manufactured affordably. I cannot wait to not have to wait for my phone to recharge.

Image: A graphic showing ions flowing between micro-electrodes in new battery tech from the University of Illinois. Credit: Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology

[GrandJediMasterYoda]

Yeah yeah, but can it core a apple?

[jeffc]

Why don’t the cell companies just sell a pack that contains a spare battery and charging station for spent batteries, so you could charge one battery while using another and quickly swap out the low battery for the one in the charging station? Seems there’s money to be made there.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

I bet they’ll blow up even better than the old lithium ion batteries.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Figure out a way to make these batteries power a car and the electric car is alive.

[kevkrom]

I have an external battery for my iPhone (3rd party vendor) that you can charge up and then discharge directly into the phone via the docking port. It’s nowhere near as fast as the technology described above, but it’s great to have when I’m making heavy use (especially location services stuff, which can be a battery hog) and can’t get to a regular charger.

Some folks also sell battery cases that function as a phone case with a built-in external battery like the one above.

Still, being able to fully charge in seconds would be amazing.

[Covenantor]

They already do, or at least Blackberry has them. I’ve had them for several years. BB battery OEM battery holder price has dropped to about $5 on Amazon, bring your own USB cable and charger. Take the lid off and extended life batteries fit as well. There are also 20k mA battery packs that darn near recharge all smart phones and tablets for under $50.

Free market at work.

[Squawk 8888]

You can get pocket-sized batteries with a USB port that will charge any device for under $20 and some of them can be recharged with sunlight. Mine holds 2.5x the charge of my phone battery:

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/12000mAh-External-Battery-Portable-Power-Supply-Charger-for-HTC-Mobile-Phone-MP3-/121093835926?pt=US_Cell_Phone_PDA_Chargers&var=&hash=item1c31c14c96

[Moonman62]

As with any new battery tech, there’s still a lot of tinkering left to do before microbatteries come to our electronic devices.

IOW, it's not going to happen, but it makes a good story for our magazine.

[Moonman62]

The prospect of almost instantaneous phone recharging is impressive by itself, but the engineers also told the university that a phone powered by these batteries could even be used to jump-start a dead car battery. Then they could be fully recharged after another second. Holy cow.

If it sounds too good to be true...

[MortMan]

The outlet, if it contains surge protection, will shut off in milliseconds.

GFCIs will be tripping like crazy.

[jeffc]

Well, I guess I won’t be applying for that patent or SBA loan for a spare battery startup company.......

[chrisser]

Figure out a way to make these batteries power a car and the electric car is alive.

I was thinking the same thing.

Of course, it doesn't solve the problem of an infrastructure able to support a large fleet of electrics, or that most electricity comes from burning the coal that the EPA wants to outlaw.

But it would improve electric car viability by a significant leap.

[Sender]

There is a thing called energy density. If you could really put enough power to jump start a car into a tiny battery, it would be dangerous, if even possible.

"Man bursts into flames, incinerated by cell phone"

[Blood of Tyrants]

Yep, in addition to the infrastructure improvements, the charging stations would have to have power feeds in the hundreds of kilowatts. Your average house current couldn’t handle a super fast charge.

[chrisser]

I’d be happy if they made a cordless drill that didn’t need to charge for an hour to use for 10 minutes.

[Blood of Tyrants]

That would be handy on any number of power tools or appliances or toys.

[B4Ranch]

>>The prospect of almost instantaneous phone recharging is impressive by itself, but the engineers also told the university that a phone powered by these batteries could even be used to jump-start a dead car battery. Then they could be fully recharged after another second. Holy cow.

If it sounds too good to be true...<<

http://www.walleyecentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=224297

I’ve watched a guy use a model airplane Lithium-Ion battery to jump start his car, several times. More than enough power in a package half the size of a small loaf of bread. However, I have also seen them burst into nasty flames......not something I want to think about in a boat.....