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When you’re out all day, it’s a huge pain to charge your mobile devices. Even if you remember to bring a charger and get lucky enough to find a free electrical outlet at a coffee shop, you still have to sit there for around an hour or so to get a full charge. 18-year-old high school student Eesha Khare invented a tiny device that could potentially charge a phone in around 20 to 30 seconds.
At this year’s Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Phoenix, Arizona, Khare displayed her tiny device. Referred to as a supercapacitor, the item is small enough to fit inside a standard smartphone battery. To demonstrate the device, she had it power a small LED — certainly not a power-hungry smartphone battery that dies before your train gets to your stop. Along with lasting around 10,000 charge cycles (as opposed to a standard battery’s 1,000), the capacitor is also flexible, so it can be maneuvered into oddly shaped spaces.
Khare’s capacitor (which we hope she’ll call the Khare Kapacitor if it ever hits the market) incorporates nanostructures to help store more energy per volume than a standard battery, hold a charge longer, and deliver a charge more quickly. After charging it for just 20 seconds, she was able to power that small LED. She hasn’t applied the battery to mobile devices just yet, but the theory has been tested, and that is the supercapacitor’s eventual goal.
Teenage girl creates tiny device that could charge a smartphone in 20 seconds
