- Even with foldable phones a reality, batteries have remained stubbornly solid.
- A new paper outlines a technique for replacing solid electrodes with toothpaste-like fluids.
- The resultant batteries aren’t just flexible, but can also be stretched.
Batteries come in all shapes and sizes, from those powering tablets to the tiny ones in our earbuds, but they’re all generally quite solid, inflexible components. Over the years we’ve heard about a few attempts to do something about that, and this week we’re checking out a new scientific paper that looks into the feasibility of batteries that aren’t just flexible, but stretchable as well.
The study published in Science outlines an approach where not just the electrolyte is a liquid, but the electrodes themselves (which are typically solid) are fluids, as well (via Gizmodo). The viscous fluids are described as having somewhat of a toothpaste-like consistency, and are resistant to degradation; the cell the team assembled survived hundreds of deformation cycles hitting up to 500% strain and still retained the ability to hold a charge.
While this experiment was more of a proof of concept than a clear path towards commercial production, this is one pretty fascinating development, and not just for flexible phones. Physical damage is a leading cause of catastrophic battery failures, and a fluidic battery like this in even a conventional smartphone might offer increased durability.
Don’t hold your breath for rollable smartphones this holiday season, or maybe even next year’s, but it’s very cool to think about where this kind of development could lead just a little further down the line.