This New Battery Can Keep Your Smartphone Charged For A Week
A new kind of battery developed by Stanford scientists could change how we consume technology. With the capability to keep your phone juiced for a week, the new battery has multi-faceted industry uses
Constant battery drainage on your smart devices slowing you down? Forget fretting, for a group of researchers from Stanford University has developed rechargeable batteries that offer six times storage over the current lithium-ion batteries that are the industry standard.
What does that mean for your devices, you wonder? Quite simply, if the battery received industry acceptance, you need to charge your device only once a week.
It has uses even in the emerging electric automobile industry - current vehicles would be able to travel six times the current distance on a SINGLE recharge!
Guanzhou Zhu/Stanford University/Tech Xplore
Meet the powerhouse batteries
The new "alkali-metal-chlorine" batteries work by continuously converting sodium chloride/lithium chloride to chlorine and then back to their original form. Chlorine is a highly reactive gas due to which its exploration as a viable alternative has remained extremely limited until now.
The study was published in the journal Nature on August 25 and the impressive range of batteries was actually created by accident.
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Guanzhou Zhu/Stanford University/Tech Xplore
Hongjie Dai, a Stanford professor along with doctoral candidate Guanzhou Zhu were actually trying to improve current battery capabilities using thionyl chloride, a report by Tech Xplore claims. For perspective - current commercial lithium-ion batteries have the capacity of 200mAh per gram.
But these batteries were able to achieve 1,200mAh per gram of charge - a phenomenal feat!
Uses go beyond conventional technology
While most people immediately think of their smartphones and laptop batteries every time such developments pop up, the scientists behind the achievement have much far-reaching goals for the tech.
Also read: Indian-Origin Engineer's Aluminium-Ion Battery Charges 60x Faster, Last 3x Longer
They hope the new batteries would be able to power remote sensors and satellites and in other spheres where recharging every few hours isn't truly viable.
Guanzhou Zhu/Stanford University/Tech Xplore
The current prototype may be used in basic electronic items like smartphones, remote controls, and hearing aids.
Do you think tech companies have grown too comfortable in lithium-ion batteries and need to push boundaries to make our dependence on charging cycles minimal? Let us know in the comments, and keep reading the latest science and technology news on Indiatimes.com.
I live for all-things-technology - gadgets, novel climate solutions, and startups that are changing the game. In my leisurely hours, you can find me binge watching science fiction films, writing poetry, or dancing to pop anthems.
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