The rapidly-charging smartphone battery is fabricated with chains of amino acids known as peptides. The same naturally occurring protein building-blocks that are at the heart of professional sports' clubs controversial supplement programs.

When used to construct semiconductors for batteries, peptides charge faster and more reliably than traditional materials.

Typically a smartphone battery stores energy in structures known as quantum dots or nanodots. These can be made of inorganic semiconductors such as silicon; or other similar structures using cadmium selenide or zinc sulphide.

In 2010 researchers Charlotte Hauser and Shuguang Zhang wrote in the journal Nature that quantum dots could be formed with other materials, including peptides. They found a number of advantages, including causing the environment less harm. More importantly, the nanodots are cheap and easy to produce at a high purity.

This is specifically useful for smartphones.