Why are we not already able to “instant-charge” EVs, smartphones or other batteries?
In: Physics
Imagine you had a HUGE pile of bricks in your driveway that you wanted to move into your living room. Moving one at a time would require a little work over a long period of time – generating a little bit of heat (I.e. sweat) over a long period of time. You also probably wouldn’t scratch or damage your house in the process as you would be carefully setting each one down individually.
Now imagine moving as many bricks as you could carry at one time. Moving several bricks at a time would require a lot more work and generate more heat (sweat), but take less time. You would also cause some damage to your house in the process, by scratching walls and maybe damaging the floor when dropping them.
Now imagine trying to move ALL the bricks from your driveway into your living room instantly. It would require an enormous amount of energy to be applied in an instant and generate an enormous amount of heat, which would probably be similar to a bomb going off to move that much mass instantly. It would also destroy your house in the process.
Charging batteries is like moving electrons instead of bricks and moving them into our battery instead of your house. Maximizing the number that can be moved at a time is a delicate balance between applying the right amount of energy, dissipating the heat, and not damaging the “house” in the process.
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