Speeding up charging speed of smartphones.

[MathematicalPhysicist]

Is it technologically possible to improve the speed of these machine's charging?

I mean, I want to go now for a walk, but it seems I need to charge my phone for at least 30 minutes, can we lower the expected charging time?

What obstacles do we find to overcome this?

Thanks in advance, MP.

 

[DrClaude]

I had a conversation a long, long time ago (before mobile phones could fit in your pockets) with someone working in research on batteries, on the subject of charging times. There is of course a limit due to the kinetics of the chemistry taking place in the battery. But apart from that, you could have a very fast charge, but there is a cost to it, in terms of the lifetime of the battery or number of charge cycles before the capacity falls below an acceptable threshold. So you basically have to accept a compromise between having to wait for it to charge and buying new batteries all the time.

 

[MathematicalPhysicist]

No way to bypass this obstacle?

 

[skeptic2]

Use an outboard battery.

 

[axemaster]

If the battery is Lithium-ion, I definitely would not recommend messing with it. Li-ion batteries can catch fire or explode if charged or discharged improperly.

For other battery types it's pretty much what the other people already said. It may be possible to charge them faster, but doing so could damage the battery, shorten the life, or reduce the actual charge absorbed. There are a few reasons for this - internal heating, incomplete crystal formation, too slow ion drift rates, etc.

Overall the obvious piece of advice is that you should do your research before attempting anything.

 

[the_emi_guy]

Ultracapacitors would charge much more rapidly, but would have less capacity or be larger in size or both.

 

[meBigGuy]

You cannot change the charge rate of a battery charger unless you have access to the circuit and/or the processor code that controls the charge profile. I don't happen to know how accessible/flexible the android charge code is and whether you can mess with it. (theoretically you can root your device, change the code, and re-rom it). The design would be phone dependent and possibly fully controlled by a dedicated IC. Your best bet is to buy an external battery pack for those times when you need it.

If you mess with lithium battery chargers you can cause the batteries to burn up your device (or worse). (google lithium battery fire)