World's First Bendable Battery Sees Light
Bangalore: Besides the rumors about bendable Smartphones soon hitting the market, a group of South Korean scientists led by Professor Lee Sang–young of Ulsan National Institute of Technology, announced the development of the world’s first bendable lithium ion batteries. The team published their discovery in a research paper titled “Imprintable, bendable and shape-conformable polymer electrolytes for versatile shaped lithium ion batteries,” which was featured in a German weekly journal – Advanced Materials.
These juice pads are made up of nanomaterials that can be applied to any surface, which then behave similarly to fluid-like polymer electrolytes which makes it bendable. These batteries could speed up production of Smartphones with flexible displays such as Samsung’s Youm flexible OLED display exhibited at the recent CES 2013.
This was considered as a major breakthrough in terms of making a flexible phone. However South Korea’s Ministry of Education addresses a safety issue concerning heat. According to the bureau, standard lithium ion batteries that used liquefied electrolytes had problems with safety as the film that separates electrolytes may melt under heat in which the positive and negative ions may come in contact causing an explosion.
