Researchers Invent Paintable Battery. We fully expect batteries to follow suit with all other electronic components and grow smaller, thinner, and lighter as time ticks on, but we can't say we say this development coming. A team of engineers at Rice University in Houston, TX has invented paintable batteries. Yes. Batteries that can be painted onto any surface or device.
The future is here. The researchers broke down all of the components of a lithium-ion battery and converted them into paint. From there, they layered each different paint on top of each other to emulate a traditional battery cell. So what do you do with spray-on batteries? [via The Verge] Tags: battery. This Paintable Battery Can Be Used Virtually Anywhere. Researchers at Rice University in Texas have created a paintable battery that can be used anywhere. Also impressive — the battery is rechargeable and can hold a 2.4 volt charge for six hours. To create this sprayable battery, the team disassembled the chemicals of a lithium-ion battery and converted them into five paints. These paints were then sprayed in a particular order, like a conventional battery cell, onto ceramic tiles. Then the nine tiles were lined up parallel and placed with one tile topped with a solar cell that converted power from a white laboratory light. The battery was sprayed onto a variety of surfaces, including ceramic bathroom tiles, flexible polymers, glass, stainless steel and a beer stein to see how well they would function on each material.
In testing, the batteries were reliable and consistent — within 10 minutes of their target energy output. What do you think this sprayable battery could be used for? Texan team paints batteries onto beer steins. High performance access to file storage Researchers in Texas have discovered a way to break down the components of a battery into liquid form and paint power cells onto everyday objects. An electrifying brew In a paper published in Scientific Reports, the team at Rice University detailed the development of fluids that mimic the conventional lithium-ion battery components, and then painted them on tiles, beer steins, steel, and flexible surfaces.
The wafer-thin layers can then be charged up and run like a normal battery. "There has been lot of interest in recent times in creating power sources with an improved form factor, and this is a big step forward in that direction," said Pulickel Ajayan, Rice’s professor in mechanical engineering, materials science, and chemistry. The material used in the layers ranges from the exotic to the prosaic.
The team hand-painted nine bathroom tiles with the components and charged them using a solar cell and installed current. Paintable Battery : Scientific Reports. We adopted spray-painting technique to assemble batteries (Fig. 1b) due to advantages such as ease of operation and flexibility in formulation from small-scale (aerosol cans) to industrial scale systems (spray guns). Fabrication of batteries by spray painting requires formulation of component materials into liquid dispersions (paints), which can be sequentially coated on substrates to achieve the multilayer battery configuration.
Commercial Li-ion batteries have positive and negative electrode materials coated on appropriate current collectors, sandwiching an ion conducting separator (Fig. 1a). Aluminum and copper foils are commonly used current collectors (CC) (positive and negative CC respectively), while electrode materials and separators are chosen based on desired voltage, current capacity, operating temperature and safety considerations13, 14, 15. Full size image (569 KB) Full size image (494 KB) Pulickel Ajayan : Rice University Department of Chemistry. Benjamin M. and Mary Greenwood Anderson Professor in Engineering; Professor of Materials Science and Nanoengineering; Professor of Chemistry Our research focuses on the development of functional nanostructured materials for variety of applications.
We look at the materials science and engineering aspects of these novel materials with three different focused application areas: Nanomaterials in Energy Generation and StorageThere is a tremendous opportunity today in the development of new materials for applications in energy. We are working on integrating nanomaterials in several key areas of energy technologies. Engineered architectures based on carbon nanotubes, nanowires and nanocomposites are being looked at in our laboratory for the development of new designs of supercapacitors, battery and their hybrids.
Similarly electrodic applications of nanostructures are being pursued in the energy generation (e.g. hydrogen) area. Publications J. A. L. S. J. M. A. G. S. W. T. G. A. H. T. L. L. J. Paintable battery can be sprayed onto almost any surface. Researchers at Rice University in Texas have developed a battery which can be painted onto almost any surface. The team began by converting all the components of a lithium-ion battery into paints.
It then layered the paints on top of each other, emulating the structure of a conventional cell. Once correctly layered, the paint was able to store and discharge energy like any battery. The team sprayed nine ceramic tiles with the paints and connected them in parallel. The resulting battery proved capable of delivering a steady 2.4 volt current over six hours and retained around 98 percent of its capacity after sixty charge cycles. If it can be refined and perfected, the technique developed by the researchers could result in freedom from the traditional constraints of rectangular and cylindrical Li-ion batteries, allowing for more diversity in design.