Self-charging batteries might still be a few lightyears away, but a team of US scientists claim to have cracked a new technology that will give lithium-ion batteries 30 times more power.
The batteries can also be recharged 1000 times faster than competing technologies, according to the scientists who used 3D-electrodes to build "microbatteries".
As their name suggest, these will offer a smaller version of what is current commercially available. But they can also be built to standard size and offer more juice than we currently get. A lot more.
"This is a whole new way to think about batteries," said a statement from Professor William P. King, who led the research. "Now the power source is as high-performance as the rest of it."
Better, faster, stronger
King says that current battery technology has "lagged behind" and we couldn't agree more. Despite the intense pace at which our smartphones continue to evolve, the battery is the one aspect that continues to evade real leaps forward, despite gentle progress over the last few years.
According to King, the new technology could be available to consumers in "perhaps 1-2 years", and our gadgets will be the first to reap the benefits.
"The first applications of this technology will be to replace supercapacitors in radios and personal electronics," he said.