Researchers at the University of Cambridge have identified that a group of materials called niobium tungsten oxides could offer faster battery charging that could substantially accelerate the adoption of electric cars. The material could also significantly reduce charge times for batteries in electrical devices like smartphones and laptops, allowing full charge replenishment in minutes.

Current batteies’ limitations

How fast a battery can be charged depends, in part, upon the rate at which the positively charged lithium ion particles can move towards a negatively charged electrode where they are then stored as energy. The difficulty in making batteries charge more quickly is the speed at which these lithium ions migrate, usually through ceramic materials.

By changing from ceramics to niobium tungsten oxides could allow lithium ions to pass through at an exceedingly high rate, drastically reducing batteries’ charging time.

Using niobium tungsten oxides in batteries

“Niobium tungsten oxides are fundamentally different,” said Kent Griffith, first author on the study published in the journal Nature.

First discovered in 1965, niobium tungsten oxides have a rigid, open structure and larger particle sizes than many other materials commonly used in batteries. The movement of the lithium ions through is measured using a technology similar to that found in an MRI scanner. The research discovered that lithium ions moved through the material hundreds of times faster than they do through typical ceramic electrode materials.

On top of this, the material is plentiful, cheap and easy to produce. “These oxides are easy to make and don’t require additional chemicals or solvents,” said Griffith.

Clare Grey, professor of materials chemistry at the University of Cambridge and senior author on the paper, said the next step will be to optimise the use of this material in a full battery, which can be cycled for the time and length needed for electric vehicles. “For example, electric buses where you may want to charge the bus very fast at the bus stop,” she added.

Dan Brett, professor of electrochemical engineering at University College London, who was not involved in the work  said, “The discovery is very exciting in terms of what it does for battery performance. The really clever thing about the work is the insight into the mechanism and ability to measure how fast the lithium ions travel through the material.”

Brett continued, “This technique will also allow these materials to be further optimised, so we can look forward to future improvements in power, energy and lifetime.”

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Taiwanese electronics company Huawei Technologies Ltd. (HTC), and Swiss-based Sirin Labs are both introducing blockchain smartphones.

HTC

HTC’s Exodus blockchain smartphone, which it is believed will be priced at around $1,000, and is reported to have “tens of thousands” of reservations globally. The smartphone, from the world’s third largest phone manufacturer, will be released this year, will come with a built-in (offline) wallet for storing cryptocurrencies, and will act as a computer node in a blockchain network.

What Is Blockchain?

Blockchain is an incorruptible peer-to-peer network (a kind of ledger) that allows multiple parties to transfer value in a secure and transparent way. Blockchain’s Co-Founder Nic Carey describes Blockchain as being like “a big spreadsheet in the cloud that anyone can use, but no one can erase or modify”. Blockchain is the technology at the heart of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, is open-source, and free.

Why A Blockchain Phone?

Giving a phone a blockchain element means that it has access to blockchain applications such as a crypto wallet, secure exchange access, encrypted communications and a P2P resource sharing ecosystems for payment and apps. It can also be used for cryptocurrency mining.

The built-in wallet for the HTC phone for example, will enable it to store bitcoin, Ethereum and other digital tokens.

Sirin Labs – The Finney Phone

The other blockchain smartphone, which is likely to be launched after HTC’s, is the ‘Finney’, named after the late bitcoin pioneer Hal Finney.

This smartphone, which also has a $1,000 price tag, has been described as an “ultra-secure blockchain smartphone”, and has been specifically designed to get around what Sirin Labs believe to be 2 main obstacles to mass market acceptance – security and user experience.

Sirin Labs even launched an initial coin offering / ICO (crowd funding from early backers of tokens for a new cryptocurrency) to fund the Finney. This resulted in over $157 million being raised.

The Big Advantage – The OS

Sirin claims that its big advantage with the Finney is not so much the phone, but more the Operating System (OS) that it claims, thanks to partnerships it is making, will soon be included in phones by other top OEM phone developers.

Security

In terms of how secure the phones are, the main question will be how both companies will keep sensitive cryptocurrency data secure. For example, unless a phone is in flight mode, there’s always a connection of some kind, and that offers a lot more attack surfaces than something like a USB stick that’s only occasionally connected.

Niche Product For Rich Enthusiasts?

Some critics have said that a blockchain smartphone is too much of a niche product that may just appeal to enthusiasts and speculators rather than a mass market, and that most people may struggle to understand what blockchain is and how / why they should use cryptocurrencies.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

For HTC, many see this as being a way for the company to find a way back into the smartphone market, where it’s been struggling in recent times, but this time with a differentiated product that is a market first, ahead of competitors.

For Sirin Labs, it could also be a way to get into a new section of the market ahead of the competition, but many are sceptical as to whether the Finney will get the mass market acceptance that Sirin Labs hopes.

Most business people in the UK, for example, may be unlikely to see why they would need a blockchain phone with a crypto-currency wallet as part of their daily working life. If they’re going to spend £1,000+, they may be more likely to opt for new models of more familiar phones with more standard features e.g. iPhone or Samsung Galaxy.

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