A Flexible, Stretchable Lithium-Ion Battery Design From KIST Matches Traditional Designs' Capacities
Constructed entirely from materials which contribute to energy storage, this stretchable battery doesn't sacrifice capacity.
Engineers at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) have published details of a new micro-honeycomb structure which allows for the production of a lithium-ion battery flexible enough to allow for both bending and stretching.
"The stretchable lithium-ion battery developed through this research," claims KIST's Dr. Jeon Gon Son of his team's research, "is expected to present a new paradigm in term of stretchable energy storage systems for the further development of wearable and body-implantable electronic devices."
Making a stretchable battery required several components to be modified: The team's work saw the creation of a honeycomb-like graphene electrode combined with a stretchable gel electrolyte, which once assembled alongside a stretchable separator acts like an accordion to stretch and recompress according to external forces.
While rival scientists have developed their own takes on stretchable batteries - such as this design from Stanford University and associated academic institutions, unveiled earlier this year — the KIST design doesn't rely on any traditional stretchable materials like rubber. Instead, every material used in the battery's production is part of the energy storage system — meaning that the completed battery's energy capacity of 5.05mAh/cm² equals that of non-stretchable equivalents.
The team's work has been published in the journal ACS Nano under closed-access terms.