ADVANCE BENDABLE BATTERY…
The Chinese tech giant Panasonic in 2017 released a bendable battery, considered as an advance bendable battery. These scientists invented bendable lithium-sulfur batteries, aimed at paving way for the production of flexible smart devices. This has been a huge technological challenge since traditional batteries are made with liquid electrolytes and poured into solid electrodes.
Amazingly, on the fourth of June 2018, Chinese scientist Zhang and other six researchers of Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics actualized the development of flexible batteries and was made public by Asian Scientist Magazine, but this time, these flexible batteries were developed with saline solution and cellular fluids as electrolyte solutions aim at high efficiency. On this note, I give credit to Zhang and the other six scientists for their great achievement.
Elsewhere, in South Korea, the bendable battery was equally developed which will be brought to you in a later post.
The researchers in China that engineered bendable batteries are currently not focusing on smart devices, but are extending their research development to wearable devices and medical implants that run on batteries, which can be seen as a huge breakthrough in medical implant technology and a great relief for patients who have the need for it. This is because the batteries for medical implants should be lightweight, durable and nonhazardous to the human system, but most currently used batteries in medical implants are bulky, contain hazardous material and rigid in shape, like the lithium-ion used in the medical implant that comes in rigid form.
The primary focus of their research development, especially on medical ground was based on addressing the challenges of wearable medical implants batteries previously reported, of their rigidity, poor biocompatibility, corrosive electrolytes and their hazardous effects. However, these scientists focused on alternatives to lithium-ion batteries taking appropriate measures on the mechanical stress demands of wearable electronics, like smartwatches, and a high degree of safety in medical implantable electronics, designed with normal saline and cell-culture medium that contains amino acids, sugars, and vitamins in addition to sodium ions, which stood out as ideal biocompatibility electrolytes.
One vital area where these flexible batteries are to be deployed effectively in the area of flexible electronic devices. Bendable lithium-sulfur batteries have paved the way for the production of flexible smartphones and other electronic devices. This will require the development of new applications that will potentially change the way consumers interact with their devices. The batteries are said to be more stable and resilient, with a great flexible feature of been bent and twisted while still storing charge. Imagine having your Smartphone folded in your pocket or wallet.
The flexible batteries were designed in two types, a 2D belt-shaped battery adhered with thin electrode films to a net of steel strands, while the second, a 1D fiber-shaped with embedded nanoparticles of electrode material around a carbon nanotube backbone.
These flexible batteries have unique qualities, first is its discharge capacity when compared with most commercial lithium batteries. It can raise initial specific discharge capacity up to 1600 microampere per hour (mAh), which is five times of most commercial lithium batteries. Others are it’s high energy density and lightweight.
Are we in the future with an advance bendable battery?
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