New battery breakthrough could charge devices in seconds
As gadgets demand for power increases charging times will increase, this new thin film battery will charge your gadgets faster than you can make your toast.
Key takeaways
- A new type of battery that lasts for days with only a few seconds' charge has been created by researchers at the University of Central Florida.
- The high-powered battery is packed with supercapacitors that can store a large amount of energy.
- Cyclic stability refers to the number of times a battery can be fully charged and drained before it starts to degrade.
Cite or link to this article
Griffin, M. (2017) 'New battery breakthrough could charge devices in seconds', 311 Institute, 15 January. Available at: https://www.311institute.com/new-battery-breakthrough-could-charge-devices-in-seconds/ (Accessed: 1 October 2026).
A new type of battery that lasts for days with only a few seconds' charge has been created by researchers at the University of Central Florida.
The high-powered battery is packed with supercapacitors that can store a large amount of energy. It looks like a thin piece of flexible metal that is about the size of a fingernail and could be used in phones, electric vehicles and wearables, according to the researchers.
As well as storing a lot of energy rapidly, the small battery can be recharged more than 30,000 times, by comparison, normal lithium-ion batteries begin to tire within a few hundred charges and they typically last between 300 to 500 full charges and drain cycles before dropping to 70 per cent of their original capacity.
"If consumer electronics companies replaced the batteries with these supercapacitors, you could charge your mobile phone in a few seconds and you wouldn't need to charge it again for over a week," said Professor Nitin Choudhary, one of the researchers behind the new technology.
So far supercapacitors like these haven't been used to make batteries because they'd have to be much larger than the small units that are available today, but the Florida researchers have overcome this hurdle by making their supercapacitors with tiny nanowires. The nanowires are then coated with a high energy shell and it's their highly conductive properties that allow superfast charging.
"For small electronic devices, our materials are surpassing the conventional ones worldwide in terms of energy density, power density and cyclic stability," said Prof Choudhary. Cyclic stability refers to the number of times a battery can be fully charged and drained before it starts to degrade.
The team still have some refinement to do so the technology won't be appearing in devices for a while, but nonetheless one day waiting for your gadgets to charge will be a thing of the past.
FAQ
Why does this matter?
As gadgets demand for power increases charging times will increase, this new thin film battery will charge your gadgets faster than you can make your toast.
About the author
Matthew Griffin Founder, 311 Institute
Matthew Griffin is a multi-award winning Futurist and expert in Disruption and Innovation, Geopolitics, Leadership, and Technology, who NASA have described as a "walking encyclopaedia of the future" and a "futurist Polymath."
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Matthew Griffin is a multi-award winning Futurist and expert in Disruption and Innovation, Geopolitics, Leadership, and Technology, who NASA have described as a "walking encyclopaedia of the future" and a "futurist Polymath." 15-time best selling author of the "Codex of the Future" series, Matthew is the Founder and Futurist in Chief of the 311 Institute, a global Futures and Deep Futures advisory firm working with royal households, world leaders, G7, G20, and G77 governments, NGOs, and multi-national mid and mega cap firms to help them explore, shape, and lead the next 50 years of business and society.
An award-winning YouTube creator with over a million followers, with an unrivalled global reach and impact, Matthew is a highly sought-after international keynote speaker, lecturer, and mentor who collaborates with global leaders through the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) and United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to shape pivotal initiatives such as the UN’s AI for Humanity program, the United Nations Conference of the Parties (UN COP), and the World Economic Forum in Davos.
As the former Global Head of Cloud, National Security, and Enterprise Sales for companies including Atos, Dell-EMC, and IBM, Matthew has a proven track record of building multi-billion dollar business units and turning failing divisions into market leaders. His ability to identify, analyse, and communicate the implications of hundreds of emerging technologies and trends is unparalleled, and his insights are trusted by many of the world’s most respected organisations, including ABB, Accenture, Adidas, AON, ARM, BCG, Centrica, Citi, Coca-Cola, Dentons, Deloitte, Dow Jones, EY, Google, KPMG, Lego, Legal & General, LinkedIn, Microsoft, PepsiCo, Qualcomm, RWE, Samsung, Siemens AG and Siemens Energy, T-Mobile, UBS, VISA, Walmart, Workday, Worldpay and many others.
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Sources and further reading
- University of Central Florida ucf.edu
- Supercapacitor en.wikipedia.org
- Acsnano.6b06111 pubs.acs.org
Source: first published by the 311 Institute on 15 January 2017. Cite as: Griffin, M. (2017). New battery breakthrough could charge devices in seconds. 311 Institute. https://www.311institute.com/new-battery-breakthrough-could-charge-devices-in-seconds/
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