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bendable battery

Technology advances have created smaller, lighter electronic devices that make many areas of life highly convenient. However, powering these devices has been somewhat problematic because the liquefied electrolytes in standard batteries require hard casings. Current battery technology is inflexible, and its vulnerability to high heat includes the possibility of hazardous leaks or explosions.

A safer power source could soon become available in bendable batteries that use nanotechnology to fuse electrolytes to various flexible materials. Researchers around the world are developing these groundbreaking devices, which have the potential to change the entire electronics industry.

Paper Batteries

A team of researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York created a flexible battery using ultrafine carbon nanotubes fused to paper. Components are integrated on a molecular level, meaning that cutting the finished battery into various shapes, along with folding, rolling or twisting it, won't decrease function. These batteries can also be stacked to combine and increase power generation.

There's no water in the bendable battery, which indicates no reactivity to temperature variances. Instead, the electrolytes come from a liquid-salt, ionic fluid that withstands temperatures from minus 100 to plus 300 degrees Fahrenheit. The aligned carbon nanotubes serve as the electrodes in conducting the energy.

The device delivers steady, long-term power, similar to a lithium-ion battery, and it can also provide the quick bursts of energy available from a supercapacitor. Furthermore, this battery is environmentally compatible given its high paper content and the avoidance of harmful chemicals.

Researchers at Stanford University in California have also been working with carbon nanotubes, along with silver nanowires, in fusing printable ink to paper. Large-scale production hasn't yet occurred, but the overall goal of both teams is to develop printable, flexible batteries for various technologies.

Bendable Battery Uses

Paper batteries have the potential for use in hand-held electronics; hybrid automobiles requiring quick electrical transfers; energy storage for standard distribution grids; solar or wind energy storage; and internal medical applications. For example, thanks to a high level of biocompatibility, pacemakers or other devices could function with non-toxic paper batteries, using the electrolytes in blood or other bodily fluids for energy rather than infusing them with external substances.

A small company in Israel is working with this technology as well, imprinting on paper, plastic or other flexible materials. Power Paper Ltd. uses a compound of manganese dioxide and zinc in its formula, and the company's vision expands possibilities into making travel safer. Examples include luggage tags and airline documents coded with passenger data and equipped with tiny radio transmitters that track passengers and their luggage, using power from flexible batteries.

Solid Polymer Batteries

New developments emerged recently from South Korea, where scientists with the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology worked with solid, polymer electrolytes to create flexible lithium-ion batteries. These batteries could potentially be used for bendable mobile phones and for organic light-emitting diodes (OLED), which would allow curved or foldable display screens in various electronic devices.

Back in the U.S., a California company called Imprint Energy is also looking into solid polymers, but they're considering zinc rather than lithium-based products for a bendable battery to reduce toxicity.

However this amazing technology first reaches mass production, look for the future of batteries and any electronic devices that use them to change dramatically.