Friday 3 August 2012

PAPER BATTERY
    

To a piece of paper ink infused with carbon nanotubes and silver nanowires is applied
scientists at stanford university in california reported they have successfully turned paper
coated with ink made of silver and carbon nanomaterials into a 'paper battery' that holds promise
for new types of lightweight, high-performance energy storage. ordinary paper could one day
be used as a lightweight battery to power the devices that are now enabling the printed word
to be eclipsed by e-mail, e-books and online news.
the same feature that helps ink adhere to paper allows it to hold onto the single-walled carbon nanotubes and silver nanowire films. earlier research found that silicon nanowires could be used
to make batteries 10 times as powerful as lithium-ion batteries now used to power devices such as
laptop computers.

'taking advantage of the mature paper technology, low cost, light and high-performance
energy-storage are realized by using conductive paper as current collectors and electrodes,'
the scientists said in research published in the proceedings of the national academy of sciences.

this type of battery could be useful in powering electric or hybrid vehicles, would make electronics
lighter weight and longer lasting, and might even lead someday to paper electronics, the scientists said.
battery weight and life have been an obstacle to commercial viability of electric-powered cars
and trucks.

'society really needs a low-cost, high-performance energy storage device, such as batteries
and simple supercapacitors,' stanford assistant professor of materials science and engineering
and paper co-author yi cui said.

cui said in an e-mail that in addition to being useful for portable electronics and wearable electronics,
'our paper supercapacitors can be used for all kinds of applications that require instant high power...
since our paper batteries and supercapacitors can be very low cost, they are also good for
grid-connected energy storage,' he said.

peidong yang, professor of chemistry at the university of california-berkeley, said the technology
could be commercialised within a short time.






 prepares a small square of ordinary paper with an ink that will deposit carbon nanotubes and silver nanowires on the surface
that can then be charged with energy to create a battery.



...it turns into a battery or supercapacitor...


...even if you crumple the piece of paper...


...it still works.
all images courtesy standford university


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