PexelsA student has accidentally stumbled upon an invention that could turn the 2010’s on its side.
PhD student Mya Le Thai and her team were looking at how to design better nanowires for use in normal rechargeable batteries when they unintentionally invented a battery that can last for 400 years. No joke.
They made the discovery while researching the properties of nanowires made of gold and embedded in a special electrolyte gel. During their tests, the battery survived 200.000 charge cycles in three months without any loss of performance. According to Good, that could power a normal smartphone or laptop for 400 years. Four. Hundred. Years.
Steve Zylius / UCIReginald Penner, leader of the chemistry faculty of the University, called the discovery ‘crazy’, saying these batteries ‘decline rapidly after only five or six thousand cycles, seven thousand at the most.’
That means no more portable charges, no more wrapping your charger around your phone three times and then duct taping it to make it charge, and definitely no more low battery.
You’ll be dead three times over before that happens.
GiphyThe researchers are still unsure as to why the combination of the gel and the gold wires makes a super battery, but because gold is an expensive material, they’re looking at alternatives before producing a marketable product, Business Insider reports.
Because of this, when we can start using these super batteries in our smartphones (if at all) is still unknown. So don’t stop bringing your charger to work just yet.
