StoreDot Bio Battery Ready For Smartphones In 2016

Israeli firm StoreDot claims that its prototype battery, which can be fully charged in just 30 seconds, could be ready for the market sooner than first thought, potentially transforming the smartphone and electric car industry.

Bio-Batteries

Modern smartphones are of course notoriously power hungry devices, and research is underway in many countries to either extend battery life, or make batteries more energy efficient.

But according to StoreDot, its technology can charge a mobile phone battery in 30 seconds that can deliver a day’s worth of battery life. An electric car battery recharge would take two minutes, almost the same time it take to fill a traditional petrol tank.

It was back in April this year, when Tel Aviv-based StoreDot first revealed that it had developed the prototype battery, that uses nano-technology to synthesise artificial molecules. This allows the prototype battery to store a much higher charge, much more quickly. It apparently acts like a very dense sponge that quickly soaks up power and retains it.

The company had demonstrated it at the Microsoft Think Next Conference in Tel Aviv, when its prototype battery charged a dead Samsung Galaxy S4 to full power in just 26 seconds. Back then, it said its prototype battery was too bulky for smartphone use, and predicted that a slim smartphone version would arrive in 2017.

But now, according to Reuters, the company believes it can get a slim battery version for smartphones ready by 2016.

This is potentially a significant breakthrough for the smartphone industry, but also for the car industry as it seeks to transition from petrol-powered vehicles to electric powered cars. Like power hungry smartphones, the main drawback with electric cars is their limited range and long recharge period.

“These are new materials, they have never been developed before,” Doron Myersdorf, the founder and chief executive of StoreDot, was quoted by Reuters as saying. The company’s investors include the Chelsea football club owner Roman Abramovich, as well as an unnamed Asian mobile phone maker.

So how is the prototype battery able to store so much energy in such a short timeframe? Well it seems that the innovation is based around the creation of “nanodots of biological origin“. These nanodots apparently alter the way a battery behaves to allow the rapid absorption, and more importantly, the retention, of energy.

Battery Developments

StoreDot’s Myersdorf believes that a fast-charging smartphone with its battery would typically cost up to $150 (£96) more than current models, so the battery would likely only appear in premium devices in the beginning.

Myersdorf also believes that the battery would be able to handle 1,500 recharge/discharge cycles, giving it a three year life span.

The research going into battery technology continues to grow. Earlier this month, scientists invented a special coating to prevent visits to hospital A&E departments when children accidentally swallow a battery.

And researchers in the United States recently developed a new chip could dramatically extend the battery life of the smartphone and even save energy for mobile phone base stations, by equipping a battery with a much more efficient power amplifier.

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