The widespread consumption of electronic devices has made spent batteries an ongoing economic and ecological concern.
A team at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore), have developed paper-thin biodegradable zinc batteries that could one day become an environmentally sustainable option for powering flexible and wearable electronic systems. Once the battery has been expended, it can be buried in soil, where it breaks down completely within a month.
These zinc batteries are made up of electrodes screen-printed on both sides of a piece of cellulose paper that has been reinforced with hydrogel to fill the gaps between the cellulose fibers. The battery measures just four by 4 cm – at least, one version of it does – and it’s reportedly capable of powering a small electric fan for 45 minutes. Bending or twisting the battery did not interrupt the power supply.
In another experiment, the NTU team demonstrated a 4cm x 4cm battery used to power an LED. They showed that despite cutting away parts of the paper battery, the LED remained lit, indicating that cutting does not affect the functionality of the battery.
To develop a thinner, lighter prototype with no packaging required, researchers adopted a sandwich design for their batteries – the electrodes are like the bread slices, and the cellulose paper that the electrodes are printed on is like the sandwich filling. The fabrication process starts with reinforcing cellulose paper with hydrogel to fill up the fiber...
Read Full Story: https://www.inceptivemind.com/ntu-singapore-flexible-paper-thin-batteries-break-down-soil-within-weeks/22479/
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