This new toothpaste battery tech might revolutionize the charging industry

Summary

A new conformable battery tech shaped with a toothpaste-like consistency can be molded into various forms.
Researchers have successfully converted solid electrodes to liquid form, creating a soft and malleable battery.
Although conceptual, the tech is incredibly promising and bodes well for the future of consumer electronics.

Swedish researchers have developed a new type of battery technology that has a consistency similar to that of toothpaste, allowing it to be molded into any number of different shapes and forms. This new conformable battery tech comes out of Linköping University, and is outlined in a newly-published study in the Science Advances journal.

“The texture is a bit like toothpaste. The material can, for instance, be used in a 3D printer to shape the battery as you please. This opens up for a new type of technology,” says Aiman Rahmanudin, assistant professor at Linköping University, and co-author of the study.

To create a battery that is soft and malleable to the same degree as something like toothpaste, the researchers took the approach of converting electrodes from a solid to a liquid. This, according to the study, is a novel solution that makes sustainable use of abundant materials like polymers and lignin (a byproduct of paper production).

For the time being, this new battery tech remains conceptual in nature.

For the time being, this new battery tech remains conceptual in nature. From a voltage standpoint, it maxes out at 0.9 volts, which doesn’t quite reach the performance expected from consumer-facing batteries. For reference, a standard AA battery operates between 1.2 and 1.5 volts, and the average smartphone clocks in at between 3.7 and 4.2 volts (via Gizmodo).

“The battery isn’t perfect. We have shown that the concept works but the performance needs to be improved. The voltage is currently 0.9 volts. So now we’ll look at using other chemical compounds to increase the voltage. One option that we are exploring is the use of zinc or manganese, two metals that are common in the Earth’s crust,“ said Rahmanudin.

Even with this limitation in mind, the real-world implications of being able to mold, stretch, and even 3D print a battery are endless. Until now, battery tech has remained notoriously stagnant when compared to the likes of processors, displays, and other critical components found in modern consumer tech products.

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Malleable batteries have the potential to revolutionize the tech industry

With this new toothpaste-esque battery technology, Swedish researchers have successfully decoupled two opposing forces of nature: power capacity and rigidity. Assuming the concept is scalable and can achieve mass production, it has the capability to one day revolutionize our consumer gadgets and electronics.

“Batteries are the largest component of all electronics. Today they are solid and quite bulky. But with a soft and comfortable battery, there are no design limitations. It can be integrated into electronics in a completely different way and adapted to the user,” says Rahmanudin.

In other words, the adoption of flexible and stretchable batteries has the potential to enable a whole new frontier of gizmos. Next-generation wearables like smart contact lenses, more advanced foldable phones and laptops, smart articles of clothing, and any other number of possibilities are all on the table. There are potential medical applications worth noting, too, such as possible improvements to pacemaker technology.

…I look forward to the inevitable renaissance in tech hardware design.

For the longest time, battery tech innovation has stagnated when compared with other components found in electronic devices. A new wave of flagship smartphones has brought with it more energy-dense silicon carbon power packs, but they remain confined by rigidity. Graphene batteries look promising, too, but the tech is probably several years away from mass production.

If and when toothpaste-style batteries hit the market, I look forward to the inevitable renaissance in tech hardware design. Rollable and scroll-like phones have always intrigued me, and I’d love to see them make the jump from concept to real-life product in the coming years.