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This just sounds like complete snake oil. When asked to explain, the spokesman says things like "we use new physics". That alone peaked my bullshit detector.

• TeMPOraL 12y ago
  Yeah. Also, I'm pretty sure this was in the news half a year ago.
• lotsofmangos 12y ago
  It isn't a charging technology for existing batteries, the BBC are doing very crappy reporting. It is an ultra-capacitor made of peptides instead of a battery.
  • kefka 12y ago
    I wouldn't doubt that the BBC is doing bad reporting. My concern is over using supercaps: their density is still very low compared to Li-ions on a volume basis. Also, I noticed they are using a Samsung phone. Last time I used a supercap in a project, I had to build a complex circuit that compensates for exponential voltage drop but outputs constant voltage and amperage. I want to know how they got around that issue as well.
    • raverbashing 12y ago
      Won't a boost converter solve this? It's probably a more complicated version, but the idea is the same.
      • kefka 12y ago
        It would. But like I said, they were using a Samsung S(something). There's no way, aside using a different mainboard, to make the phone have a charge rate of 5C or higher. That's just the details of the phone charging hardware. I would have believed it more if they used a MediaTek chip based phone. They could have hacked and modified those all they wanted.
• codeduck 12y ago
  Lithium Iron Phosphate cells can charge at a rate of up to 5C with no side effects - they're used in more expensive hand-tools and as primary power cells for electric radio control aircraft and helicopters. That said, smartphones don't use these batteries, and anyone who tried to put a couple of amperes into a standard lithium polymer battery is going to have an amusing experience.
  • tempodox 12y ago
    What exactly do you mean by “5C”?
    • codeduck 12y ago
      5 times the nominal rating of the battery - it's a term we throw around loosely in Radio Control, based on Elec.Eng terminology that is too complex for us laymen :) A 1000 milliamp/hour battery has a C rating of 1 i.e. 1 ampere/hour. So for a typical Lithium Polymer you'd charge this at at most 2 Amperes to prevent damage to the battery. A LiFePO4 could be safely charged at 5 Amperes, which drastically reduces the charge time - very useful if you're at a flying site and are charging packs in between flights to extend your flight time and make use of good weather.
      • desdiv 12y ago
        ampere/hour Minor correction: battery capacity is measured in ampere-hour, i.e. ampere * hour.
    • maccard 12y ago
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battery_charger#Charge_rate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battery_charger#Charge_rate explains it pretty succintly
    • deleted 12y ago
      [deleted]
  • ricket 12y ago
    5C is still like 10-15min for a full charge -- and definitely does have side effects, it causes damage to the battery and will result in sagging voltages and lower capacity in just tens of charges. 5C is too high of a charge rate. I feel like you've mixed up LiFePO4 and LiPo. LiFe has low charge rates, lower energy density, lower voltage, and higher cost compared to LiPo. For R/C aircraft, it's typically used only for the receiver and servos of the really large helis/planes, because its lower voltage is tolerated by the servos whereas a LiPo needs a regulator to step down to 5-6V for driving servos. I can't speak for expensive hand tools, but "everyone" in the R/C community uses LiPo.
• tempodox 12y ago
  I have the same doubts. For entertainment reasons, I would be interested in the explosions you mentioned, but other than that I would prefer my battery to survive its first recharge, and many more after that. (Edit: Clarification)
  • ricket 12y ago
    It's not as entertaining than say a dynamite explosion, but here's an example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixIOEPnsgbI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixIOEPnsgbI Gassing (or smoke, not sure which) starts around 15 sec. Plenty of results for 'LiPo explosion', 'overcharge lipo', etc. A LiPo fire is a chemical reaction, it cannot be extinguished by traditional fire extinguishers (i.e. smothering does not extinguish, it's creating its own fuel) -- you have to wait for the battery to burn out and then extinguish the remains on fire. Treat your batteries (and electronics with batteries in them) well, folks.
    • kefka 12y ago
      Back when I was taking inorganic chem in the university, if we dealt with any of the alkali metals, we had a bucket of sand in arms reach. That's the only thing that will save you.
• dogma1138 12y ago
  The technology seems to be viable, the team behind it is also not some garage citizen scientists but a quite established teams of researchers. Techcrhuch had some articles about them this year http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/07/storedots-bio-organic-battery-tech-can-charge-from-flat-to-full-in-30-seconds/ http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/07/storedots-bio-organic-batte...
• userbinator 12y ago
  Some EEs here have raised the same skepticism about the charging rate: http://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/storedot-super-fast-charging-batteries/ http://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/storedot-super-fast-ch... There are specialist lipos used for RC planes/cars/boats that can handle 100C burst discharges but even those can't be charged at more than ~10-20C - and these cells have very high self-discharge and short cycle life, so they're quite unsuitable for mobile phones.