Every new generation of smartphone offers more megapixels, faster processors, more apps - but the same disappointing battery life, no matter which brand you choose.
But a team of scientists at the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science appears to have cracked one of the thorniest problems of modern electrical engineering - batteries which actually work.
The team's batteries, using a hi-tech mix of sheets of carbon and silicon to supercharge today's lithium-ion batteries, hold up to 10 times as much power and charge up to ten times faster.
The technology could be used to ensure that offices are no longer littered with phone charger cables - and even to build electric supercars.
This isn't theory either: the team reckon the technology could be on the market within as little as three years.
The technology uses Lithium-Ion batteries, the standard for current hi-tech appliances, such as smartphones, but with a new type of electrode.
The batteries can store up to ten times as much electricity as standard Li-Ion cells - and also charge far faster.
The technology could also make electrical cars far more practical - and far less likely to conk out mid-journey.
Harold Kung, lead author of the study published in Advanced Energy Materials said, 'We have found a way to extend a new lithium-ion battery's charge life by 10 times. Even after a year of operation, the battery is still five times more effective than li-ion batteries on the market today.'
The breakthrough uses a mix of sheets of graphene - atom-thick sheets of carbon and silicon, but with defects in the graphene purposely added to allow ions to move faster through the batteries.
The result allows the batteries to store more charge, and to move it far more quickly.
Batteries using the new technology could charge up to 10 times faster.
'We almost have the best of both worlds,' said Kung.
© Daily Mail, London
|
E-mail
