Researchers have developed a new flexible battery that is capable of being powered by saltwater and could lead the way for electronic devices to be powered by your sweat or tears.
Rather than being powered by toxic chemicals the new flexible batteries can be powered by saltwater and IV rehydration solutions. The new batteries take a couple of different forms with one looking similar to a strip of tape, made of two flattened electrodes that sandwich the electrolyte in between. While the other battery is composed of two tiny threads made out of carbon nanotubes.
The paper published in the Chem journal this week explains more :
The development of wearable and implantable electrical devices has been in great demand recently. However, most existing energy storage systems are based on strong corrosive or toxic electrolytes, posing a huge safety hazard as a result of solution leakage. Here, we have developed a family of safe and flexible belt- and fiber-shaped aqueous sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) by using various Na+-containing aqueous electrolytes, including Na2SO4 solution, normal saline, and cell-culture medium.
The resulting SIBs exhibit high flexibility and excellent electrochemical performance and can be safely applied in wearable electronics. Flexible SIBs with normal saline or cell-culture medium as the electrolyte showed excellent performance, indicating potential application in implantable electronic devices. In addition, the fiber-shaped electrode in normal saline or cell-culture medium electrolyte can consume O2 and change the pH, implying promising application in biological and medical investigations.
Features & highlights :
– Flexible aqueous belt- and fiber-shaped SIBs with high safety are fabricated
– Normal saline and cell-culture medium are used directly as electrolytes for SIBs
– Fiber-shaped SIBs exhibit an electrochemical deoxygenation function
For more details on the salt water powered flexible battery jump over to the Science Direct website via the link below.
Image: Guo et al.
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