Micro-batteries – Small in size, Big on power
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A new microscopic battery that can charge in under a second may be on it’s way to a mobile device near you soon.
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have been working hard on a new type of battery that could literally change the way that we use our battery powered devices overnight. What’s more, these micro-batteries are so powerful that you could use your mobile phone battery to give your car battery a jump start!
“With so much power, the batteries could enable sensors or radio signals that broadcast 30 times farther, or devices 30 times smaller. The batteries are rechargeable and can charge 1,000 times faster than competing technologies – imagine juicing up a credit-card-thin phone in less than a second.”
The team, led by William P. King, the Bliss Professor of mechanical science and engineering wrote an article on their website explaining how the new technology works.
“The batteries owe their high performance to their internal three-dimensional microstructure. Batteries have two key components: the anode (minus side) and cathode (plus side). Building on a novel fast-charging cathode design by materials science and engineering professor Paul Braun's group, King and Pikul developed a matching anode and then developed a new way to integrate the two components at the microscale to make a complete battery with superior performance.”
So imagine not having to worry about charging your mobile phone if you forget to do it when you go to bed. All you need to do is plugin a charger for a second before you leave for work in the morning and you will have a 100% fully charged battery to take away with you. Pretty awesome huh?
Shut up and take my money!
Before you go off to your nearest mobile store to buy a device with a micro-battery fitted, the sad news is you can’t…yet. According to the team, the batteries are still in development but they expect to have a cheap product that they can take to market within the next two years. So maybe your Samsung Galaxy S7, or iPhone 7s will have this amazing new technology (so long as Apple don’t copy it then slap a patent on it – low blow I know). :)
