
Israeli Startup Can Charge Your Phone in 1 Minute - ilghiro
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-30710295
======
kefka
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.

Every battery tech I'm also aware of cannot handle high amperage charging
without things like outgassing, battery seperation, heating effects, and
explosions. Even the venerable NiFe battery has problems with high current
charging.

But this startup has beat it? [Citation needed]

~~~
codeduck
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
What exactly do you mean by “5C”?

~~~
codeduck
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
_ampere /hour_

Minor correction: battery capacity is measured in ampere-hour, i.e. ampere *
hour.

------
dogma1138
From what i can understand the biological process is used to construct non-
biological parts in this case very small semi-conducting crystals. The
"battery" it self i would assume is some sort of a high density bank of MIS
capacitors or any other semi-conductive capacitor.

According to some of the more business oriented reporting about the product
their current end goal for 2017 is a 100-150$ batter capable of 1500-2000
discharge cycles this means that if it will be put in a phone it will give you
a life time of 3-4 years depending on your discharge rate.

Their goals at least seem to be very realistic, even if the price will be a
blocker even for most high end phone users. I do see this technology having
many applications tho especially for military and emergency services.
Considering that the US Army has trialed multiple Samsung phones so far with
specialized software an "ultra battery" like this would be very appealing to
them even if it will have a horrible life time and a very high price compared
to commercial batteries. The Army can and will pay very high amounts if it
means that the turn around for a soldier's computing package will be minutes
instead of hours.

The company so far raised 40-50 million $ and not via "kickstarter" some of
the investors are rumored to be phone giants including Samsung, and in any
case venture capitalist firms don't ten to put 50M on the table for snake oil.

~~~
jeffreyrogers
> in any case venture capitalist firms don't ten to put 50M on the table for
> snake oil.

You have a much higher view of VCs then I do then. I'm personally aware of a
few tech companies that exist solely to siphon money from the investors to the
founder. Rich people aren't always careful with their money, particularly when
they are putting it into something hot, like tech, that they know nothing
about.

------
stewartbutler
Maybe a nanopore/nanostructure battery[1,2]? They are touted to bring near-
capacitor charge/discharge rates from fairly traditional chemistry. This
specific application leaves a few questions, though:

1: What is the actual capacity of the battery demonstrated? If it has a high C
but low capacity, this isn't really notable. The paper [1] indicates that
total charge capacity is a function of how fast the battery is charged; what
tradeoff are they making?

2: How many charge cycles is this battery capable of at those rates?

3: What thresholds are they putting in place for temperature, and are all the
components of the phone rated for _repeated_ thermal cycles to those levels
and back to ambient?

4: What is the failure mode for this battery? Outgassing? What compounds are
released in overcharge?

[1] -
[http://www.nature.com/nnano/journal/v9/n12/abs/nnano.2014.24...](http://www.nature.com/nnano/journal/v9/n12/abs/nnano.2014.247.html)

[2] -
[http://www.google.com/patents/US20060216603](http://www.google.com/patents/US20060216603)

------
newuser88273
I used to have that technology on my first mobile phone, back in a previous
millenium. It was called "spare battery".

~~~
tempodox
I think the point to be made here is the short recharge time. Did your spare
battery recharge in minutes?

~~~
newuser88273
No, but my pain point as a user is that I want a fully charged phone right
now. I don't care that the spares sit in a charging station for an hour or
two; that's an uninteresting detail of the implementation.

------
lotsofmangos
"The BBC has been given an exclusive look at a new kind of battery charger
that can recharge a modern smartphone in less time than it takes to boil a
kettle."

Unless I am missing something on Storedot's website, the BBC were actually
shown a phone with an ultra-capacitor instead of a battery.

~~~
agildehaus
From the video it just looks like a phony app that claims the battery is being
charged.

------
AndrewDucker
I'm currently backing the Petalite:
[https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/petalite-
flux-15-minute-c...](https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/petalite-
flux-15-minute-charging)

Which sounds rather more believable, and like it might be useful this year. I
can live with 15-minute charging, and it being an external battery.

~~~
ricket
It's 100% believable, technology-wise. It's a 2600 mAh LiPo (or LiFePO4 or
other similar lithium battery), and the charger charges it at about 4C == 10A.
The tradeoff is that such high charge rate tends to damage the battery quicker
(resulting in sagging voltages/lower capacity).

I don't believe their claims that it will last 3 years of regular use, that it
will have 1500 charge cycles, or that it has "novel battery chemistry". I'd
give it up to a year, and even then you'd probably be experiencing much lower
capacity by the end of the year, but that's my rough guess. I'm also a bit
surprised that it's deemed safe for consumers and will be certified.

------
sajal83
No, it can't charge _my_ phone in 1 Minute.

