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Cell Phone Charging Tech
A teenager from Saratoga, California took home one of the top prizes at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair late last week after showing off her invention, which can fully charge a cell phone in 30 seconds or less. Eesha Khare was given the Intel Foundation Young Scientist Award and a $50,000 prize for being runner-up in the competition, which was won by a 19-year-old who unveiled a new spin on self-driving car technology. Khare's battery technology requires a new component to be installed inside the phone battery itself, and Intel notes that it also has potential applications for car batteries.KdypGHUNV0A

 

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Posted

So this kid wins second prize and only $50,000 for something that is more practical and applicable?  I would never trust a car that drives itself.

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Posted

So this kid wins second prize and only $50,000 for something that is more practical and applicable?  I would never trust a car that drives itself.

 

This.

Posted (edited)

This makes me lol to an extent. I work in the energy technology industry and what this student has done is interesting, BUT, I want to know the numbers. Being able to charge/discharge fast is important for high power applications - phones/mobile devices are not high power applications. What is important is the volumetric energy - i.e. the ammount of energy you can store in a certain volume.

 

These days mobile devices require lots of Ampere-hours (Ah) since they run multicore processors, store lots of information, run demanding graphical applications and allow for high signal strength. Yes it would be good to charge your phone in less than a minute, however what is the point if it does not deliver high Ah/cm3.

 

I really am interested in this, however, very skeptical at its feasibility in a real world application.

 

Batteries (specificaly lithium-ion) can charge/recharge at rates of 20-30C (i.e. 1/20-1/30th of an hour, in 3-2 minutes), however the problem is usually associated to breakdown of the material over several cycles. Capacitors, on the other hand, can charge/discharge at much highe rates (100C+) however their volumetric energy is lower than in batteries.

 

Once again, media has overhyped a science-based story.

 

Sigh.

Edited by Death_Reincarnated
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Posted

Here is a uTube vid of it and her.  Click on the 'more'.  ATM there are a number of technical negative comments by detractors, much like Death_ReIncarnated's above.

 

A common opinion is that she did not "invent" anything in the usual sense, but did demonstrate the technology.

 

Some of the possibilities are interesting, such as a roll-up power source for your roll-up display.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LahFsj6bLI

Posted (edited)

I'm not saying that her work cannot be beneficial but at this stage energy technology have many safety, environmental and performance boxes that need to be ticked before it can be even considered.

 

Her work was based on titatnium oxide material (TiO2) which is a well known material in both supercapacitor and battery systems - it is very stable and at nanoscale can intercalate/extract ions (lithium, hydrogen) at very high rates.

 

She mentioned that she was able to light up the LED screen after the quick recharge. Well this makes me think that is all she could use the energy for. What would be good to know is how fast that energy was drained - i..e under what load, just screen or while making a phone call.

 

Polymer-based electrolytes have the edvantge of no spillage - which is a safety issue in "wet" batteries. The problem with polymer-based batteries is the operation temperature range. Generally at temperature above 60°C the polymer can begin to deform and melt, which means that it can start to loose its beneficial properties.

 

Then there is the operating potential of one of these cells. It is beneficial for a high operating potenial in order to minimize the volume of the materials used (i.e. high Wh/kg, Ah/cm3). The problem with supercapacitors is, generally speaking, low operating potential.

 

I could write a several page rebuttal on this but there is no point.

 

All I will say now is, her work will be extensively scrutinised but from what I have seen and read it is nothing too novel.

 

P.S. That video clearly shows that her cell powered an LED...NOT A BETTERY. This is what I mean by media spinning s**t, to say it bluntly.

Edited by Death_Reincarnated

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