This Battery Could Charge a Mobile Phone in One Second

Smart phones are more sophisticated than ever, yet the batteries that power them have remained relatively archaic – until now.

Scientists at the University of Illinois have managed to develop the most powerful microbatteries ever created, making them almost 1000 times stronger than existing lithium batteries and paving the way for smartphones that could be charged in just one second.

Led by William P. King, a professor of mechanical science and engineering, the researchers published their results in the April 16 issue of Nature Communications.

“This is a whole new way to think about batteries,” King said. “A battery can deliver far more power than anybody ever thought. In recent decades, electronics have gotten small. The thinking parts of computers have gotten small. And the battery has lagged far behind. This is a microtechnology that could change all of that. Now the power source is as high-performance as the rest of it.”

“Any kind of electronic device is limited by the size of the battery – until now,” King said. “Consider personal medical devices and implants, where the battery is an enormous brick, and it’s connected to itty-bitty electronics and tiny wires. Now the battery is also tiny.”

(READ the story in the Daily Mail)