Now, smartphone battery that recharges in 30 seconds

An Israeli startup has developed a new smartphone battery that can recharge in just under 30 seconds.

The advance could change the way we interact with portable electronics, and perhaps even help realise the dream of a fast-charging electric car.

The battery by StoreDot claims to bring charge times down to the order of a few seconds.

The company produces so-called nanodots, chemically synthesised bio-organic peptide molecules that, thanks to their small size, improve electrode capacitance and electrolyte performance.

The result is batteries that can be fully charged in seconds rather than hours.

"In essence, we have developed a new generation of electrodes with new materials - we call it MFE – Multi Function Electrode," StoreDot CEO Doron Myersdorf told 'Gizmag'.

"On one side it acts like a supercapacitor (with very fast charging), and on the other is like a lithium electrode (with slow discharge). The electrolyte is modified with our nanodots in order to make the multifunction electrode more effective," Myersdorf said.

The company said that unlike other nanodot and quantum-dot technologies that are heavy metal based, making them toxic, its nanodots are made from a vast range of bio-organic raw materials that are environmentally-friendly.

These materials are also naturally abundant, and the nanodots employ a basic biological mechanism of self-assembly, making them cheap to manufacture.

Myersdorf said the technology could also be adapted to electric cars, by modifying the electrode so it could sustain higher currents and configuring a large number of cells in parallel.