esha Khare is the brilliant teen behind an itty-bitty device that could supercharge cell phones
CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO
Posted on 05/21/2013 7:24:36 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Now here’s the invention that we’ve all been waiting for: A device that instantly charges our cell phones.
A gadget like this might soon be on its way thanks to a bright 18-year-old from Saratoga, Calif., who was recently honored at an international science fair.
Eesha Khare is the mind behind a super-powerful and tiny gizmo that packs more energy into a small space, delivers a charge more quickly, and holds that charge longer than the typical battery. Khare showed off her so-called super-capacitor last week at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Phoenix, Ariz. In her demonstration, she showed it powering a light-emitting diode, or LED light, but the itty-bitty device could fit inside cell phone batteries, delivering a full charge in 20-30 seconds. It takes several hours for the average cell phone to fully charge.
Khare also pointed out that the super-capacitor “can last for 10,000 charge cycles compared to batteries which are good for only 1,000 cycles.”
Khare’s invention is flexible and could be used in roll-up devices and might even have applications for car batteries.
The judges at the science fare were wowed by Khare’s brilliant invention and the senior at Lynbrook High School in San Jose received the Intel Foundation Young Scientist Award and $50,000.
“With this money I will be able to pay for my college and also work on making scientific advancements,” Khare told a cheering audience after receiving the prize money.
(Excerpt) Read more at blog.sfgate.com ...
She didn’t invent anything. The supercapacitor has been developing for 10 years.
Smells like BS, I have seen several people claim the same thing.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2445878/posts
She must have one hella work shop!
If not longer. Here is just one example out of tens of thousands of supercaps that are available at Digikey and every other distributor.
I remember that first proposals to use supercaps as a battery replacement started at least 10 years ago. Not many are in use today. They have issues. For example, batteries tend to produce more or less stable voltage until they reach a certain discharge level. Capacitors don't do that, so you have to have wide input range switching regulators - and their range has to be wider than for Li-Ion batteries because if you want to take all the energy then you have to take voltages all the way down to zero.
As usual these stupid reporters don’t tell us anything. Did the girl come up with an original idea that advances the state of art? Who know?
Another problem is quick discharge rates can lead to heat/explosions. Or one helluva jolt from a small package. Don’t put your tongue on one.
This article is about as poorly written as can be. Starting with the title which claims something entirely different(and technically non-sensible). than the story. The story then gives no details that indicate that this girl invented anything that did not already exist.
We need to put her on the E-Cat
Ah, you mentioned two other problems of supercaps.
First, many of them have ridiculously high internal resistance. This means that they are not capable of delivering high current. You can short a supercap, but the current will be limited by its internal resistance. If you use the supercap as a battery, it will be heating up. Ideal use of a supercap is a backup energy source that is drawn upon only for a fraction of a second - to park heads of a HDD, for example.
Another problem is that they are low voltage parts. This seriously constrains your options because most semiconductors do not work well at very low voltages. You cannot trivially chain several supercaps either, not without special measures to protect individual cells from overvoltage or reverse polarity. Remember the failure of a Li-Ion battery on Dreamliners this winter? One cell out of many failed and ignited the rest.
Yet another problem is that they cost more than the rest of the phone. That one supercap, just 100F * 2.5V, only holds 648 joules of energy, even if you know how to take it out of the part. It's only 0.18 watt hours; probably good for talking for about 5 minutes. But the part costs $35 in quantity! A Li-ion battery would deliver 1A for an hour at 3.6V, resulting in 3.6 watt-hours, and it will cost ten percent of that.
Supercaps are good for what they are good for; but they are not a universal solution to every problem. If they were, they'd be already used for that. Engineers of Nokia, Motorola, Ericsson and of everyone else in mobile market are not exactly incompetents who don't read trade magazines.
I have a few supercaps here on my bench. I have no use for them, so special these devices are. I bought them to use as a "power loss" backup for an SSD that I was building, but the design already went past that concept.
I saw one article claiming that you could use them in your cell phone AND jump start you car with it. LOL
Even if it were possible that the device could deliver the amperage,That would be on hella USB cable!
People make the wildest claims.
I say give her a $100k scholarship to NOT go to college!
I don’t blame her.
I blame the scientific board that awarded the prize.
She’s just an ambitious greenhorn with no world experience.
Here is her project summary, "Design and Synthesis of Hydrogenated TiO2-Polyaniline Nanorods for Flexible High-Performance Supercapacitors":
http://www.usc.edu/CSSF//History/2013/Projects/S0912.pdf
Notice the last line: "Used lab equipment at University of California Santa Cruz under the supervision of Dr. Yat Li".
Here's an article published in February of 2012 by authors including Dr. Yat Li of the University of California, Santa Cruz:
Title: Hydrogenated TiO2 Nanotube Arrays for Supercapacitors
http://research.pbsci.ucsc.edu/chemistry/li/publications/2012_NanoLett_12_1690-1696.pdf
You have to wonder if Dr Li didn't deserve the award.
Let's see how Dr. Li would look in future Intel PR videos:
So sorry, Dr. Li.
‘You’ll burn your eye out, kid.’
I thought this was a student competition? Using professionals is tantamount to “cheating”.... but hey... in this new world, that is A-O-K!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.