Skip to main content

Charge your phone in seconds, use it for days? A new battery may make it possible

university central florida battery tech of cell phone
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Battery technology plays a pretty major role in our digital lives and while it has certainly been refined over the past few years, there is always room for improvement. Scientists from the University of Central Florida have developed a supercapacitor battery prototype that works as if it were new even after being recharged as many as 30,000 times.

If successful, the research could mean the development of super fast-charging batteries that could last a whopping 20 times as long as today’s lithium-ion batteries. In other words, you could charge your phone in only a few seconds and not need to charge it again for an entire week, according to postdoctoral associate Nitin Choudhary, in a report from Engadget.

Recommended Videos

The reason that supercapacitors can be charged so quickly is that they store electricity on the surface of a material, instead of having to store it through chemical reactions, as happens in lithium ion batteries. Those material sheets can hold a ton of electrons.

Much of the research with batteries involves using graphene. However, the team at UCF chose to go a different route — it wrapped 2D metal materials, which are only a few atoms thick, around tiny conductive wires, which essentially allows electrons to pass from the core to the shell quickly and easily. The result was a fast-charging material with a lot of energy and power density.

It’s important to note that the research is still in early development and it is nowhere near ready for commercialization just yet, however it certainly looks promising. Currently, the tech is just a proof of concept and the team behind it is now figuring out the best way to patent the tech. While it could go nowhere, like a lot of other battery ‘breakthroughs,’ we could also hear a lot more about supercapacitor research in the near future.

Christian de Looper
Christian de Looper is a long-time freelance writer who has covered every facet of the consumer tech and electric vehicle…
Battery capacities explained: Here’s how much charge your power bank really has
RavPower power bank

Now that we're apart more often than we're together, smartphone battery life has taken on new importance. If your smartphone's battery dies, your ability to communicate with friends and family -- and therefore your social life -- goes with it, or at least is paused until you can recharge your phone. Pick up a charging case or a power bank and you can ensure your phone battery never dies -- and keep your social life on course too.

Of course, charging cases and power banks may not always operate exactly as their specs or marketing would suggest. While a typical power bank or charging case might come with an advertised capacity of 20,000mAh, this doesn't mean that it can recharge your Motorola Edge Plus or Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra exactly four times. In practice, its real (i.e., transferrable) capacity is likely to be around two-thirds of this, meaning that it can recharge a smartphone with a 5,000mAh battery only twice (or two and a half times) before needing a charge itself.

Read more
Catalyst’s new Total Protection case makes your iPhone 12 completely washable
catalyst total protection iphone 12 case ces 2021 news influence

Case maker Catalyst has announced the Total Protection series of cases for the Apple iPhone 12 range. What makes them a little bit different, and totally on point for the world we currently live in, is they cover the whole phone in a protective, washable shell. What’s more, these tough cases are still compatible with Apple’s new MagSafe charging technology, despite the additional layers.

Catalyst Total Protection case for the iPhone 12 Pro Image used with permission by copyright holder

Read more
This one trick will charge your iPhone’s battery faster
trick charge iphone battery faster charging

We've all been there -- you're about to leave the house and your phone is seriously running out of battery. You'll probably just plug your phone in and get as much juice as you possibly can in a small amount of time. Fast charging makes that a simple task, if your phone's battery is really low — but when your iPhone already has a decent charge, you'll find it charges pretty slowly no matter what you plug it into.
There's a way, however, to get your iPhone to 100% that extra bit faster — and it's hidden in your Settings app.

To charge your phone to 100% quicker, open up the Settings app, head to the Battery Health section, then toggle off the Optimized Battery Charging switch. That seems counterintuitive, but it really works — here's why.
Best fast chargers for iPhone and Android
Turns out, it's actually not all that healthy for your phone's battery to continuously charge straight to 100%, and sit at 100%, all of the time. According to Apple, batteries can age more or less depending on factors like charging patterns and temperature -- and the more they age, the less charge they can actually hold. Leaving your phone at 100% on a charger for hours and hours on end accelerates that degradation. In other words, the real-world effects of quickly charging your battery and leaving it at 100% over and over again are actually tangible. Even if that impact won't be felt for a year or two into the phone's life.
Use this feature sparingly — but when you need it, it's wonderful to have the option.

Read more