It’s a rechargeable lithium-ion device, only a few hundred microns thick but 140 meters long.
MIT
- A team of MIT engineers created the world’s longest flexible fiber battery.
- It can stretch to over half a mile long and it’s rechargeable and fire-resistant.
- It can also be woven and washed, meaning it could power fiber-based sensors or electrical devices.
Modern batteries will need to overcome countless obstacles in order to power new technologies like flexible devices, electric vehicles, and medical devices.
Engineers from MIT have made a breakthrough in this field, creating the world’s longest flexible battery.
It’s a rechargeable lithium-ion device, only a few hundred microns thick but 140 meters long.
According to the MIT website, the battery can be woven and washed. This could enable it to be integrated into ordinary clothing as a power source.
The design is unique because key materials like lithium are contained inside the fiber, with a protective layer on the outside that makes it waterproof. New gel electrodes and a gel electrolyte also make the battery fire-resistant.
To make the battery, the parts are placed in a cylinder and heated to just below the melting point. This material is then compressed down to a much smaller size.
“All the active materials are very well-integrated, so they don’t change their position,” said Tural Khudiyev, a lead author of the study.
The battery is flexible, thin, and extremely long
The prototype offers a storage capacity of 123 milliamp-hours. This means that it could charge smartwatches or phones, Khudiyev said.
In addition to being the longest, it’s also the world’s thinnest fiber battery design.
“There’s no obvious upper limit to the length. We could definitely do a kilometer-scale length,” Khudiyev added.
“The beauty of our approach is that we can embed multiple devices in an individual fiber,” said another of the lead authors, Jung Tae Lee.
To highlight the flexibility and potential of the material, the team wrapped a toy submarine with the battery fiber to provide it with power.
If devices like this could incorporate batteries into their physical structures, it would reduce their weight and increase their range.
“This is the first 3D printing of a fiber battery device,” Khudiyev said.
The MIT team has already applied for a patent and hopes that it will reach the commercial market in a few years. The team is now focused on improving the efficiency and capacity of the battery.
Read the original article on Business Insider 
