An
18-year-old Indian-American girl has invented a super-capacitor device that
could potentially charge your cellphone in less than 20 seconds.
Eesha
Khare, from Saratoga, California, was awarded the Young Scientist Award by the
Intel Foundation after developing the tiny device that fits inside mobile phone
batteries, that could allow them to charge within 20-30 seconds.
The
so-called super-capacitor, a gizmo that can pack a lot of energy into a tiny
space, charges quickly and holds its charge for a long time.
Khare has
been awarded USD 50,000 for developing the tiny device. She has also attracted
the attention of tech giant Google for her potentially revolutionary invention.
According
to Khare, her device can last for 10,000 charge-recharge cycles, compared with
1,000 cycles for conventional rechargeable batteries.
"My
cellphone battery always dies," she said when asked about what inspired
her to work on the energy-storage technology.
Super-capacitors
allowed her to focus on her interest in nanochemistry "really working at
the nanoscale to make significant advances in many different fields."
The
gadget has so far only been tested on an LED light, but the good news is that
it has a good chance of working successfully in other devices, like mobile
phones.
Khare
sees it fitting inside cellphones and the other portable electronic devices
proliferating in today's world.
"It
is also flexible, so it can be used in rollup displays and clothing and fabric.
It has a lot of different applications and advantages over batteries in that
sense" .
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