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Imagine a battery that charges in seconds and lasts for a week? That’s the promise of a new battery technology developed by a group of researchers at the University of Central Florida’s NanoScience Technology Center. The technology could herald a revolution for powering all kinds of electronic devices, from mobile phones to digital cameras.

The team of scientists has developed a prototype battery built around a so-called “supercapacitor,” which can store larger amounts of charge than conventional batteries using chemical reactions—and be charged much faster and as much as 30,000 times with no reduction in power delivery. Supercapacitors store electricity via metal plates coated with a porous material that maintains the electric charges statically.

The graphene coating used previously had met with limited success. Instead, the University of Central Florida scientists used special “two-dimensional metals” just a few atoms thick wrapped around tiny conductive nanowires. This allows electrons to pass from the core to the shell faster and more efficiently, thereby producing high energy and power densities.

It may only be a prototype right now, but we can already foresee the patent application taking shape.

Read more here.