When it comes to electronic devices, particularly smartphones and tablets, battery life is one of the biggest issues consumers rant about.
If you’re one of these people – and if you use a smartphone regularly then you probably are – good news! Your battery life woes will soon be a thing of the past. Researchers from Singapore’s Nanyang Technology University (NTU) have developed a groundbreaking new lithium-ion battery technology that can charge your phone to up to 70% in as fast as two minutes.
Currently, our lithium ion batteries have a lifespan of over 2 years and can charge at approximately 500 times. In contrast, these new lithium-ion batteries have a lifespan of over 20 years and can be charged up to 10,000 times. This new technology is a giant leap in the world of electronics!
How does it work?
The new battery technology replaced the negative pole (which was traditionally made from graphite) with titanium dioxide – an abundant mineral found in soil, which is used in everyday products such as sunscreen and food additives. The engineers from NTU used this new mineral in a gel form and transformed it into very miniscule nanotubes, which made way for a faster reaction process, enabling the batteries to be recharged at an exponentially faster rate.
A groundbreaking innovation
With this technology, electric vehicles can be charged 20 times faster, with the added benefit of not having to change them as often. This new technology’s environmental impact is also exponentially lower than that of the old technology – not to mention more economical as the battery lasts longer, which means less electronic waste and less money spent on battery replacements.
Release date
According to creator Professor Chen Xiaodong from NTU’s School of Materials Science & Engineering, the technology is expected to be released in the next two years. It’s currently undergoing licensing and he and his research team are also applying to get a grant to be able to produce a prototype of a larger scale.
Wow! As someone who charges his phone usually in a hurry, this is exciting and impressive news for me.
Also, although I don’t own an electric vehicle, I find it kind of cool that this new technology can improve the environmental impact – as if it isn’t doing enough to save!
Sadly, it’ll take two years to come out… but I guess I can wait that. To think that we went from making innovative smartphones to discovering the ability to charge a phone fully in 5 minutes, and in under a decade… imagine where the world of technology will be in 10 years…
This information is amazing to hear about. I love helping the environment and this will help it even more. The new battery will do so many good things. Ultra-fast charging, electric cars will become the common transportation, any battery operated device will benefit. The technology boom are just skyrocketing, I just wonder what the future will bring.
This is the innovation we’ve been waiting for when it comes to mobile tech. We’ve advanced so far to have large screens, fast processors, up to 4 GB of RAM, projectors, fingerprint sensors, 128 GB of memory, internet everywhere, but not a battery to power it all. It would be amazing to have a phone that charges in minutes, but how long does it last? It’d be bad if it lasted less time, good if it lasted about the same time, but even better if it lasted longer.
This is definitely revolutionary. I would like to see greater battery capacity being developed as well. Once that happens portable chargers and depleted phones, issues which continue to plague us everyday, will be a thing of the past! Great to see technology moving forward at such an astounding pace.
Increasing battery capacity has some major engineering hurdles to overcome first. Energy density in lithium-ion batteries is getting pretty close to maxed out, and we’ll likely never see the type of density we’d expect out of combustibles.
That being said, there has been promising research being done in graphene and carbon nanotubes that may point to a new material that is able to be used for energy storage. It may eventually have the energy storage capacity necessary to push the envelope further.
Well it’s about time. The idea of having to wait so long to recharge your batteries in 2014 is outright ridiculous. Being that people nowadays are always in a hurry to get things done and this invention plays well into that mentality. I can see this invention flying off the shelves as soon as it is released.
Indeed. I’m actually waiting for an instant charger. We know mother nature can transfer massive amounts of electricity from point “A” to “B” at lighting speeds (literally). Let’s think about the possibilities. If we could have a way to create a mini-lightning as our way to recharge, then you press a button, spark and presto!
I’ve always thought battery life could always be better, but with the spec race that goes on with Android devices it’s always tough to keep up with the larger screens or faster processors. That said, I have also worried about devices with non-removable batteries like my Nexus 5 and how I may have to pry that sucker open one day to try to replace it — seems like there’s so much potential to go wrong there. So I’m glad this new tech will allow for batteries to last as long as 20 years vs the standard 2ish.
You’re right that battery life is more or less staying consistent despite improvements in battery technology due to larger screens and faster processors. It all boils down to an engineering problem where the maximum amount of energy that a lithium-ion battery can hold is nearing a threshold.
What we need at this point is an improvement in material technology that will allow us to store more energy in the same amount of space, which would allow battery capacities to increase beyond the stalemate we’re currently at. Graphene and carbon nanotubes may hold the answer on that front, but we’re likely still many years away from something technically feasible.
This sounds absolutely brilliant! If this thing works properly and doesn’t ruin my phone then it will be a godsend. Too often I’ve bought phones that have rubbish battery life and annoying rates of charging. And once this comes to the market I’m guessing it will be commoditized within a year and prices will come down.
This is an enormous leap for technology. After all this time, we finally won’t have to wait long periods of time for our dead cellphone batteries to recharge up. This is also a great advantage for drivers of electric vehicles.
Of course my worry does weigh in when it comes to how well the durability of the batteries will hold up? I mean regardless of how many more years it can last compared to the batteries we use now, being able to charge so quickly will probably take some type of toll like making the battery deplete faster too. Yes? No? I guess that remains to be seen in two years.
This is exactly what I have been needing! My battery is constantly dying I feel like I can never keep up with it! I think this new battery will be a great thing for so many different reasons. Not to say that I am one who loves doing what I can to help the environment so that makes this even more great! 🙂
I suspect that this kind of fast-charging will be limited based on the source of the power. For example, those USB battery packs will probably be unable to support the full speed charging in these new batteries simply due to the speed at which the source will discharge.
I’m eager to see whether or not the technology can be adapted to allow for quicker discharge as well which would make for more energetic power usage that may have positive ramifications for fuel cell technology.
Finally, this technology should have been invented a long time ago. I really don’t have a problem with the battery of my phone, because it lasts the whole day, so I just charge it at night when going to sleep. But this will be useful for other technology, not just phones.
Outstanding innovation. This is something we could all use, right? I recently have been asking around my phone providers about what to do with old batteries, how to dispose them and if they had a recycling option. I’m pretty sure things are tidy enough now to start charging with the new lithium.
This is really groundbreaking! But I doubt it will be available at an affordable price?
Indeed, a very special innovation will come with a very special price!
But, the way use of readily available resource is being done, is really commendable. I think it takes some skilled eye to find out the best of what we have around us.
Battery life. The bane of smartphone owners. I am hoping that it delivers when it is released. Although improved battery life can be expanded outside the smartphone market. I am thinking of the residential solar power thing too.
I am also in high hopes that it delivers, as charging times as quickly as this would revolutionize the industry. However, I don’t see this technology coming to the average household in the near future, although one can always hope.
Residential solar power is a great thing as well!
I’m getting really happy that they are starting to come out with this technology nowadays. I definitely plan on getting myself these because I am always facing those dreadful last seconds where my phone is about to die when I need it most.
My phone is always dying when I’m out and about all day. I’m always on it so the battery goes by pretty fast. I have looked at the iphone cases w chargers built in but they are so expensive. I’d definitely like to have a product like this. If it charges that quickly it would be really worth it.
I believe I heard of this somewhere on Discovery channel’s YouTube, and it just sounds amazing. The fact that we could be charging our phones in seconds instead of minutes is mind blowing. Technology is moving fast, and I don’t think anything can stop it. Next we’ll probably have no need for charging, who knows.
Whilst this is very cool and its applications nearly endless, I think somehow smartphone providers and other companies will try to limit it, wanting people to spend money on replacement batteries or get a new phone.
How cool! Although hearing that our current phone batteries can only be charged up to 500 times did come as quite a surprise. I guess I don’t really keep a tally on how many times I’ve charged my phone, but I figured (over a span of 2 years) that it would be more than 500!
Nevertheless, this is really awesome information! Now when is it available to the buying public 😉
That’s pretty insane. Bet most companies thought they were pretty clever with the new “quick charge” features that have been coming out… Looks like they’ve got a few years until new competition comes their way.
Maaaan, that’s pretty impressive! Technology just never stops moving forward.
I would love to have this kind of battery in every single tech thing I own. But I guess we’ll have to wait a couple of years then…
Groundbreaking indeed. Lower environmental impact, more economical…
I wonder how long will it take for companies to adopt this new technology. The only problem you might have here is precisely the prospect of reducing spending on batteries; a boon for users, but still we must see how the battery industry will react to it.
I really hope the release date on this battery happens, because this is an amazing advancement in battery technology. With a lot of what we do becoming detached from wall outlets, it’s becoming increasingly important for us to improve our battery technology.