LG's super flexible battery

LG's researchers are trying a completely new approach to develop a battery that is highly scalable, can be manufactured with a wide range of capacities, and is also extremely bendy—so much so that it could be adapted to fit nearly anywhere, freeing designers from the heavy burden of the rigidity constraint.

The team coated copper wires with nickel-tin, coiled them around a rod and stretched them, obtaining a hollow spiral, spring-like flexible anode. Finally, the anode was coupled with a lithium-ion cell. The elegance of this design is that the electrolyte can be easily injected in the battery and is easily spread throughout the electrodes. Also, more importantly, battery capacity can be simply designed by controlling the number of copper wires and the thickness of the cathode composite that wraps around them.

Preliminary tests showed the cable battery to be stable in discharge performance regardless of their degree of bending, with almost no change compared to a non-bending state. There was however some loss in capacity, which hasn't been characterized in detail just yet.

The batteries can be woven in series or in parallel to assume nearly any shape (including sheets) with finely controlled energy density. As such, they are versatile like no other battery. LG seems to be betting on this technology, and said that if it can resolve outstanding issues (mainly capacity loss and a more thorough investigation on safety), the batteries could soon hit the market and have an enormous impact on portable, wearable, and flexible electronics in the near future.

Source: gizmag.comAdded: 5 September 2012