Take a look back to when we were kids. VCR’s, large batteries, walkman, cassettes – all the bulky retro stuff. All that stuff made us think that we were at the edge of technological advancement. Then walked in our CD’s, our classic mobile phones, mp3 players and all. These took us to another level of awesomeness altogether. Just when we thought that this is it, we are living in the future; came in our pen drives, hard disks, iPod and what not. Everything got smaller and smarter. Did you ever think that we can potentially use a battery as thin as a plastic wrap? Did you ever fathom that you could wear a flexible battery?
A new flexible and ultra-thin battery has been developed which is thinner than a credit card, and this could be integrated into various applications such as wrinkle-smoothing patches, smart cards and watch straps. I mean, WATCH STRAPS! Imagine charging your phone from your watch.
This flexible battery, about 0.5 mm thick, achieves its ultra-thinness by positioning electrodes next to each other on the same plane, rather than stacking on top of each other. This results in a format so thin that it could be considered two-dimensional. This is the first battery designed for bulk flexible applications that use this “coplanar interdigitated structure.” The other such batteries created have been micro batteries designed for limited use.
Positioning the electrodes side by side provides an edge in terms of performance also. This new battery exhibits a high voltage- 7.4 volts that is retained over 5,000 bending cycles. The greatest significance of this work is reducing the thickness of the battery while demonstrating robust bendability and cell performance.
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