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submitted 5 months ago by limerod@reddthat.com to c/technology@beehaw.org

What if charging your phone took less time than brushing your teeth? A new study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences could very well hold the key to a next-gen charger capable of recharging your phone in just 60 seconds.

Researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder have discovered a new cutting-edge technique that could make it possible to charge devices almost instantaneously. This would make charging phones, laptops, and even electric cars much more efficient and convenient. The foundation of the new technique is based on new insights into how ions move through supercapacitors.

The key, one of the researchers explains in a press release, is to make the movement of the ions more efficient. By doing this we can make the charging and release of energy much faster, allowing for that next-gen charger that is capable of boosting your phone’s charge from 0 to 100 in just a minute, or maybe even less.

To make this discovery, the researchers looked at the movement of ions through a complex network of interconnected pores running through the supercapacitor. Their findings have helped modify a scientific law that researchers have used to govern electrical currents for more than 175 years. This law, called the Kirchhoff circuit law, describes the flow of electrons in a simple loop of wiring in most classes.

However, when inspecting the ions and their movement, the researchers found that the ions move fundamentally differently at the intersections of tiny nanoscale pores when compared to how electrons move near the same locations. Further observations helped them determine that these movements are different from what Kirchhoff’s law describes. This doesn’t completely throw out the old laws, though, as they still provide valid explanations for how electronics flow within conventional electronic circuits.

However, to create a next-gen charger capable of taking full advantage of the movements of the ions, we have to look at things different. This, the researchers say, is “the missing link” that they have been looking for. Creating more efficient energy storage has been a long-term goal for many engineers.

We’ve seen water-based batteries capable of storing more than traditional lithium-ion batteries. Still, a method that lets us charge our batteries almost instantly would remove a lot of the hindrances surrounding the wider adoption of things like electric cars. Not to mention how much more convenient a next-gen character would make charging laptops, phones, and other electronic devices.

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[-] Thevenin@beehaw.org 130 points 5 months ago

Yeah, no. This is not about chargers or batteries or phones or cars. This study is about improved charge/discharge rates for supercapacitors.

Supercaps have very high flow rate, but extremely low capacity. Put them in a phone or a car and it would run very fast for five minutes. Supercaps are useful, don't get me wrong, but they're not batteries.

Very cool research from UC Boulder, but the journalism leans way too far into clickbait.

[-] TonyTonyChopper@mander.xyz 22 points 5 months ago

The bigger issue I would see is the heat created from dumping all that energy in at once. And can a US outlet even provide that much power?

[-] Thevenin@beehaw.org 29 points 5 months ago

Solid point. A laptop battery is around 60Wh, and charging that in 1 minute would pull 3.6kW from the outlet, or roughly double what a US residential outlet can deliver.

Supercaps stay pretty cool under high current charging/discharging, but your laptop would have to be the size of a mini fridge.

The research paper itself was only talking about using the tech for wearable electronics, which tend to be tiny. The article probably made the cars-and-phones connection for SEO. Good tech, bad journalism.

[-] cygnus@lemmy.ca 8 points 5 months ago

Could you have a bunch of them and draw from them in sequence?

[-] brie@beehaw.org 27 points 5 months ago

Increasing capacitance (how much charge is stored to reach a certain voltage) or the voltage it is charged to would indeed increase the capacity. Putting several in parallel would work, as would making a bigger capacitor. The main problem as far as I can tell is that the energy density of even supercapacitors is low, so you'd need a much larger volume to have the same capacity (and thus a much thicker phone).

[-] cygnus@lemmy.ca 13 points 5 months ago

Thanks for this - I was doing some reading in the meantime which confirms what you're saying about power capacity.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_electric_vehicle

As of 2010, the best ultracapacitors can only store about 5% of the energy that lithium-ion rechargeable batteries can, limiting them to a couple of miles per charge.

[-] Thevenin@beehaw.org 12 points 5 months ago

Yeah, this matches my experience.

A supercapacitor buffer will cost around twice as much and deliver around 1/10th the watt-hours of a similarly-sized lead acid battery. And lead acid isn't exactly great to begin with.

Capacitors are useful, but only in applications where the total amount of energy stored is more-or-less unimportant.

[-] deegeese@sopuli.xyz 49 points 5 months ago

This sounds at least 10 years from an actual product.

[-] abbadon420@lemm.ee 9 points 5 months ago

!remindme 10 years

[-] cRazi_man@lemm.ee 4 points 5 months ago

Stories like this have been posted every so often to reddit. I'll believe this is possible when I see it available in consumer electronics (and not just lab conditions).

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[-] sleepybisexual@beehaw.org 48 points 5 months ago

One hour is fast enough

Can we focus on other things, like making devices cheaper or idk, NOT spy bricks

[-] ultratiem@lemmy.ca 17 points 5 months ago

clears throat one hour is not fast enough.

[-] sleepybisexual@beehaw.org 6 points 5 months ago

Well, yea. Tho it would be cool to be able to slow charging down in software, I wanna sleep while charging without overcharge

[-] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 8 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

That exists. It's called adaptive charging. If you have a modern Pixel: Just set an alarm before plugging the phone in, and it will slow the charge to hit 100% when the alarm goes off. I don't know what other phones have this feature but I'm pretty sure it's just part of Android 14 if the hardware is compatible.

[-] Ilandar@aussie.zone 4 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

It has been available in some form since Android 11. It's no longer limited to Pixels - my Motorola has a similar feature caller optimised charging, which doesn't even require alarms. LineageOS also has like 3 different ways to limit charging. In short, you definitely do not need root.

[-] Markaos@lemmy.one 4 points 5 months ago

It doesn't slow charge, at least not on Pixel 7a. Well, you could argue whether 20W is slow charging, but it's all this phone can do.

It just charges normally to 80%, stops, and then resumes charging about an hour or two before the alarm. And last time I used it, it had a cool bug where if it fails to reach 80% by the point in time when it's supposed to resume charging, it will just stop charging no matter what the current charge level is. Since that experience, I just turned this feature off and charge it in whenever it starts running low.

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[-] pineapplelover@lemm.ee 32 points 5 months ago

How about we make phones repairable. Like maybe removable batteries like in the fairphone.

[-] iAmTheTot@kbin.social 9 points 5 months ago

How about both?

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[-] AFC1886VCC@reddthat.com 25 points 5 months ago

I remember when you could fully charge your battery in under 30 seconds.

REMOVABLE BATTERIES BITCH

[-] iAmTheTot@kbin.social 9 points 5 months ago

Well, that's not really charging, now is it?

[-] greysemanticist@lemmy.one 24 points 5 months ago

How about two batteries that can be ejected and swapped without powering off the device? We don't need to wait for super-capacitors today.

iPhones... someday. :)

[-] noodlejetski@lemm.ee 18 points 5 months ago

...and explode them in the next 60

[-] thefartographer@lemm.ee 10 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Consider that the energy output of a 12-gauge shotgun is approximately 4500 Newton-meters and, from personal experience, can rotate a first-gen iPad at an extrapolated 240 rpm (extrapolated as this proved difficult to sustain). That gives us an equivalent of 113 kW! A modern ipad would only need about 13 kW to charge in one second.

So, one shotgun shell could easily charge yours and 7 of your friends ipads instantaneously, although the results are difficult to appreciate.

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[-] abbadon420@lemm.ee 6 points 5 months ago

No, most phones are allready safe to leave on your charger all night.

[-] noodlejetski@lemm.ee 5 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

probably because they currently don't get stuffed a bucketload of crackly juice* in 60 seconds

*I don't, in fact, know how electricity really works

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[-] Skyline969@lemmy.ca 4 points 5 months ago

Been charging my phone overnight for years. Battery health is 100% and I never have to worry about charging.

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[-] technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 5 months ago

My worthless phone charges fast enough.

Can we please just have food, shelter, healthcare, peace, sustainabilty, etc?

[-] variants@possumpat.io 17 points 5 months ago

Sure but I doubt these researchers are in a position to provide all that

[-] taanegl@beehaw.org 5 points 5 months ago

No! Now take this slave labour cobalt and partake in the market place of ideas... I said partake! *shakes fist*

[-] LaggyKar@programming.dev 13 points 5 months ago

Figured I'd do the math on the power required.

In the article, they show a iPhone 15 Pro, which has a 3274 mAh battery, so let's go with that. Assuming a 3.7 V battery and a 1 minute charging time, that's 3274 mAh × 3.7 V / 1 min ≈ 727 W.

[-] DdCno1@beehaw.org 9 points 5 months ago

They might just as well sell PC power supply to USB adapters then.

[-] Teknikal@lemm.ee 9 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Call me skeptical I guess but if you wanted a phone that worked as long as lithium say 5000mah using capacitors I think it would be a dozen times larger at least.

Maybe I've got it wrong and supercapacitors hold more energy or something like that.

[-] TonyTonyChopper@mander.xyz 4 points 5 months ago

you are correct

[-] RagnarokOnline@programming.dev 8 points 5 months ago

I can’t even imagine the heat generated from charging a battery in 60 seconds. Gonna get branded by my bezel

[-] pineapplelover@lemm.ee 8 points 5 months ago

supercapacitors

[-] SplashJackson@lemmy.ca 5 points 5 months ago

Just smart phones? Or can I charge my gameboy with this?

[-] INHALE_VEGETABLES@aussie.zone 5 points 5 months ago

I look forward to charging my phone 60 seconds before leaving the house 👍

[-] cygnus@lemmy.ca 4 points 5 months ago

Never mind phones, what about cars?

[-] baggins@beehaw.org 13 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

From the article

This would make charging phones, laptops, and even electric cars much more efficient and convenient.

[-] cygnus@lemmy.ca 4 points 5 months ago

Yeah but I doubt that's actually the case based on the physics involved. We need fast charging cars way more than fast charging phones.

[-] variants@possumpat.io 4 points 5 months ago

Email the researchers with your complaints

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[-] TonyTonyChopper@mander.xyz 5 points 5 months ago

So an electric car might hold 100 kWh. To charge that in 1 minute you would need 6000 kW of power, or 6 MW. Typical "rapid" chargers today do 350 kW and these are the kind that are difficult to find. A nuclear plant makes around 1,000 MW so if you had 166 cars charging at once you would overload one.

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this post was submitted on 03 Jun 2024
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