Paper Battery

717 Views · August 14 · Filed under technology bytes, world record

Whoa, cool. I wonder how long a piece of black paper battery will last. If the paper is rechargeable, that will be even more awesome. Then my laptop, camera, cell phone will be much lighter.

I noticed in the picture that the paper battery is held by hands in gloves. What if the paper is held by bare hands? Will you get a minor electrocution?

The black piece of paper can power a small light.

Paper battery offers future power

Flexible paper batteries could meet the energy demands of the next generation of gadgets, says a team of researchers.

They have produced a sample slightly larger than a postage stamp that can release about 2.3 volts, enough to illuminate a small light

But the ambition is to produce reams of paper that could one day power a car.

Professor Robert Linhardt, of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, said the paper battery was a glimpse into the future of power storage.

The team behind the versatile paper, which stores energy like a conventional battery, says it can also double as a capacitor capable of releasing sudden energy bursts for high-power applications.

While a conventional battery contains a number of separate components, the paper battery integrates all of the battery components in a single structure, making it more energy efficient.

Integrated devices

The research appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

“Think of all the disadvantages of an old TV set with tubes,” said Professor Linhardt, from the New York-based institute, who co-authored a report into the technology.

“The warm up time, power loss, component malfunction; you don’t get those problems with integrated devices. When you transfer power from one component to another you lose energy. But you lose less energy in an integrated device.”

The battery contains carbon nanotubes, each about one millionth of a centimetre thick, which act as an electrode. The nanotubes are embedded in a sheet of paper soaked in ionic liquid electrolytes, which conduct the electricity.

The flexible battery can function even if it is rolled up, folded or cut.

Although the power output is currently modest, Professor Linhardt said that increasing the output should be easy.

“If we stack 500 sheets together in a ream, that’s 500 times the voltage. If we rip the paper in half we cut power by 50%. So we can control the power and voltage issue.”

Because the battery consists mainly of paper and carbon, it could be used to power pacemakers within the body where conventional batteries pose a toxic threat.

Read more: bbc.co.uk