A new type of battery that lasts for days with only a few seconds' charge has been created by researchers at the University of Central Florida.

The high-powered battery is packed with supercapacitors that can store a large amount of energy. It looks like a thin piece of flexible metal that is about the size of a finger nail and could be used in phones, electric vehicles and wearables, according to the researchers.

As well as storing a lot of energy rapidly, the small battery can be recharged more than 30,000 times. Normal lithium-ion batteries begin to tire within a few hundred charges. They typically last between 300 to 500 full charge and drain cycles before dropping to 70 per cent of their original capacity.

It is uncommon for a lithium-ion battery to withstand more than 1,500 charges before it fails, the Florida researchers claimed. Other estimates put the lifecycle of batteries currently on the market at a maximum of 7,000 charges.