Researchers Discovered Stretchable Lithium-Ion Battery

A new stretchable type Lithium-Ion battery has been found which looks to be promising enough once the technology is practical and feasible enough to be used in our gadgets. The concept uses small dots that are capable of storing energy on the stretchable polymer. It’s also being indicated that these batteries can be used for wireless charging as well.

A report indicates that the prototype stretchable batteries as of now can only run through 20 charge per discharge cycle and that it still requires additional development efforts to perfect and make it feasible enough for mass production, but looking at the ideas that are brought forward itself, it looks to be very promising.

A number of stretchable electronics and its components have been on the rise, but having a stretchable power storage solution has been an issue and a latecomer in the stretchable electronics race.

There are many applications for such a stretchable product in day-to-day life. These can used on anything from health monitors to even roll-up displays. Wearable devices (just like Apple’s patent design) can benefit from this as well.

This is invented by a team in the University of Illinois at the Urbana-Campaign where they tested an initial prototype which was able to stretch up to 300% while powering an LED lamp.

Senior Author of this research John Rogers said,”Batteries are particularly challenging because, unlike electronics, it’s difficult to scale down their dimensions without significantly reducing performance. We have explored various methods, ranging from radio frequency energy harvesting to solar power.”

Prof. Rogers has been working with colleagues at NorthWestern University where they research on stretchable electronics made of different materials by using something that they call as “pop-up” architecture. This works by using tiny and wide-spaced circuit elements viz. embedded within the stretchable polymer and connected with wires where they pop up when the polymer is stretched.

There is also another where it involves stretching the polymer in which it has tiny solar cells embedded. This will make the cells become larger once it’s stretched. The best part is that this polymer will not taut even if its stretched 3 times more than its normal size.

Prof. Rogers explained,”The most important applications will be those that involve devices integrated with the outside of the body, on the skin, for health, wellness and performance monitoring.”