In an amazing case of cross-utilization, the Israeli firm StoreDot is using research originally intended to help Alzheimer patients to create a battery that can be charged in under 30 seconds.
StoreDot is using bio-organic material to create nano-crystals that can be used in a battery, semi-conductor or display, the company said. The technology is being exhibited at the Think Next symposium being held this week in Tel Aviv.
The medical research that led StoreDot to its battery venture had identified amino acids that are being used in the bio-organic battery. The company's original intent was to use the idea to create a flash-memory replacement, but it instead decided to develop a battery.
"We were able to take the same peptides that participate in biological processes in our body and to create nano-crystals - these are stable, robust spheres," said StoreDot's CEO and founder Doron Myersdorf, adding "We are talking about new type of materials that can be introduced into different types of devices."
The spheres created are 2.1 nanometers in diameter.
StoreDot is still an estimated three years away from having a product ready for the consumer market. At this point, the bio-organic battery is not small enough to fit inside a portable device, nor is it capable of holding a charge similar to that of a conventional battery. The company expects to have a prototype that is the correct size and, in the following year, it should be able to pack enough power to be useful.
When completed, the battery will be able to take a complete charge in under a minute and be able to handle many more charge cycles. A video created by StoreDot shows a Samsung smartphone being plugged into the prototype and fully charging in 30 seconds.
StoreDot announced last year that it had received more than $6 million from several strategic and private investors with one of these possibly being Samsung.
Another use for the bio-organic technology is creating extremely thin displays for smartphones and tablets, which the company is also exploring.
"We've demonstrated an iPhone display that the active material which emits light is a bio-organic material that is created by our compounds. This will be the first ever bio-organic display," said Myersdorf. "We already demonstrated all the colours... we can bring the entire RGB spectrum for the display, so now it's all a matter of being able to reach the lifetime and the efficiency similar to cadmium."
