FlexibleBattery
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Watch strap batteries could double the life of your wearable
Smartwatches are starting to look a whole lot better, but they're still liable to run out of juice in mere days. A flexible-battery manufacturer here at Computex reckons its thin, flexible lithium-ceramic cells, shaped into wristbands, could offer as much as 500mAh of extra power, with existing models already offering an extra 300mAh. According to ProLogium, that would effectively double the battery of Pebble's smartwatch and, well, on-paper specifications suggest that it could more than double the capacity.
NJIT Scientists invent new flexible battery: bend it, shape it, anyway you want it
Whether you asked for a curved phone or not, they're already a convex reality. One that introduces a few manufacturing twists. A curved screen is one thing, but what about other large components like the battery? Samsung sidestepped this issue in the Round by making it narrow and tall, but there's still a limit to the amount of curve available. A new flexible battery developed at the New Jersey Institute of Technology could solve that. The cell uses carbon nanotubes, and is not only flexible (like other examples we've seen), but entirely scalable -- suitable for tiny or large electronics alike. Not only would this mean roll-up batteries, the researchers claim it could easily be made at home with the right "paste" and a laminating machine.
Korean researchers develop new flexible, more stable lithium-ion battery
Researchers from South Korea's Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology have developed new "shape-conformable" polymer electrolytes that could help craft those flexible display handsets of the future. Thanks to the nano-materials used, these polymers behave like more typical liquefied electrolytes but would create, according to the country's Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, substantially more stable flexible power cells, especially under high temperatures. The polymer electrolytes are spread onto electrodes and then blasted by ultraviolet rays for 30 seconds; a process that's also substantially faster than the standard battery manufacturing process. Unfortunately, there's no visual representation of exactly how flexible the new cell is, but we're hoping it'll be able to match what we've seen so far in flexible OLED displays.
Korean scientists solve flexible battery riddle (video)
We've got flexible displays, printed circuits, memory and even chargers -- why not batteries? So far, this has eluded manufacturers, but now researchers from the Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology have got the ball rolling with a high performance bendable lithium-ion version. As the video after the break (no sound) shows, the peel-and-stick type manufacturing process they devised allows the cell to provide constant juice, no matter how much it's deformed. Now the scientists are looking at ways of upping the capacity, so they can power more than just Christmas tree lights and ultimately bring "the next-generation of fully flexible" devices to market. That's no small thing, considering what some products are willing to do to fit into those tight aluminum jeans.
Flexible batteries get the graphene treatment, could be cheaper than other bendy batts
We've been talking about flexible batteries for years now, but a team of Korean researchers have presented a new solution to bendable energy sources that is not only more powerful than standard lithium-ion batteries, but also potentially cheaper to produce than its malleable predecessors -- and unsurprisingly, everyone's favorite wonder material, graphene, is at the heart of the innovation. The rechargeable battery contains a vanadium-oxide cathode, grown on a sheet of graphene paper, an unidentified separator, and an anode made of lithium-coated graphene. According to the folks behind the new power source, it sports higher energy and power density, as well as a better cycle life than the literally stiff competition. Similar advances have also out-performed rigid lithium-ion batteries, but have enlisted carbon nanotubes, a material more expensive to produce than graphene. Of course, like all technological advances, we won't be seeing these things for years, if not decades, so you might as well get used to ye olde standard bearer.
Researchers develop bendable, paper-based battery
Nah, the researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute won't be crowned the first to develop a flexible (or paper-based, for that matter) battery, but their minuscule prototype "is an integrated device, not a combination of pieces" as others typically are. The battery uses "paper infused with an electrolyte and carbon nanotubes that are embedded in the paper," and could eventually be utilized in combination with solar cells or "scaled up and shaped into something like a car door, offering moving electrical storage and power when needed." Currently, however, the wee samples can release just "2.3-volts, or enough to illuminate a small light," but the idea of using these things to power pacemakers and the like isn't that far fetched.[Via BBC, thanks to everyone who sent this in]
