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#Product Trends

FLEXIBLE, PRINTED BATTERIES THAT COULD SURF THE NEW WAVE IN WEARABLE DEVICES

Imprint Energy Could Hold the Key to New Smart Wearable Devices

A California-based company has made great advances in perfecting flexible, rechargeable batteries that can be printed for a relatively cheap price, on commonly available industrial screen printers. Imprint Energy located in California, US, has already begun testing its ultrathin zinc-polymer batteries and is aiming to sell them to manufacturers of wearable devices, medical devices, etc. The applications of this flexible and easily printed battery are literally infinite.

The big breakthrough for the company came courtesy of research undertaken by Christine Ho, cofounder of the firm. She worked on developing microscopic zinc batteries using a 3D printer at the University of California, Berkeley. Lithium is found in most modern batteries, but must be housed in bulky protective packaging due to its more unstable nature. Zinc is more stable than lithium, so doesn’t have to be contained in the same bulky manner.

However, zinc forms dendrites when mixed with water-based electrolytes. Dendrites are branch-like structures that grow out of, and in between electrodes, causing battery short outs. Ho created a solid polymer electrolyte to get around this issue, which is more stable and has a greater capacity for recharging. The firm are very close to commercializing the battery which has many advantages over rival technologies, not least its ability to be printed on standard screen printers.

Details

  • California, USA
  • Imprint Energy