What Charges in Three Seconds and Lasts for a Week?

Someone steal this battery. We won't tell.

November 23, 2016 9:00 am

When a story begins with the words “Florida Man,” we justifiably expect the worst.

But today, friends, marks a new day.

Following extensive experimentation, researchers from the University of Central Florida believe they’ve created a battery that can hold substantially more juice than existing models and be recharged more than 30,000 times without negatively affecting performance or capacity.

Capable of charging fully within a few seconds, the “flexible supercapacitors” created by UCF’s team are “composed of millions of nanometer-thick wires coated with shells of two-dimensional materials,” a design which gives “energy density, power density and cyclic stability” a big boost.

While the supercapacitors aren’t ready for commercialization, the researchers say they could have a “very high impact” on current technologies, from phones to e-vehicles to wearables.

“If they were to replace batteries with these supercapacitors, you could charge your mobile phone in a few seconds and you wouldn’t need to charge it again for more than a week,” said UCF researcher Nitin Choudhary.

Once it’s available, you’ll find us at the front of the queue.

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