Tag: batteries
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An Edible Rechargeable Battery
Edible electronics is a growing field that aims to produce digestible devices using only food ingredients and additives, thus addressing many of the shortcomings of ingestible electronic devices. Edible electronic devices will have major implications for gastrointestinal tract monitoring, therapeutics, as well as rapid food quality monitoring. Recent research has demonstrated the feasibility of edible…
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A new concept for low-cost batteries
As the world builds out ever larger installations of wind and solar power systems, the need is growing fast for economical, large-scale backup systems to provide power when the sun is down and the air is calm. Today’s lithium-ion batteries are still too expensive for most such applications, and other options such as pumped hydro…
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New wearable device turns the body into a battery
Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder have developed a new, low-cost wearable device that transforms the human body into a biological battery. The device, described today in the journal Science Advances, is stretchy enough that you can wear it like a ring, a bracelet or any other accessory that touches your skin. It also…
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Lithium-oxygen batteries are getting an energy boost
A new type of lithium-oxygen battery could pack more energy and last longer than its predecessors. Lithium-oxygen batteries, which are more energy-dense and made of more sustainable materials than typical lithium-ion cells, are promising candidates for the next generation of rechargeable batteries (SN: 1/21/17, p. 22). But lithium-oxygen batteries aren’t widely used yet because they…
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Jeans that charge your phone? The future of wearable batteries
Our clothing could soon store all the power we need to recharge our phones thanks to a new type of fabric that can hold electricity just like a battery, developed by Deakin scientists. The fabric, called MXene (pronounced ‘Maxine’), is flexible, super-strong, and super-conductive. “Imagine having a shirt that can store energy. You could have…
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Sugar battery offers green-powered tools
Scientists in the US have developed a sugar-powered “biobattery” that they say stores 10 times more energy than the equivalent-size lithium-ion batteries found in smartphones. According to the team at Virginia Tech university, the results of their work could be in use within three years – and recharging could be a matter simply of adding…