Eye Current

Paper May Soon Power The Machine That Replaced It

Ever notice that the only reason some of your electronics are as big as they are is because of their batteries? For instance how much smaller and lighter would your laptop be if it had a battery the size of a piece of paper in it? Well huge, clunky batteries may soon be a thing of the past thanks to some students Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Two groups of students were working on two different projects: working to dissolve paper to be cast for dialysis and making carbon nanotubes with polymers. The two RPI groups got together and figured out that they could combine the two projects. Instead of using the polymers for the nanotubes they could use the paper casting techniques. The device is an integrated device; it is not a combination of several pieces. The paper is in infused with an electrolyte and embedded with the carbon nanotubes. The tubes act as electrodes, the paper the separator, and the electrolytes are the medium in which current flows. Their ultimate goal is to develop a process that allows the batteries to be “printed” like newspapers. This idea is already in use with PCB design and board printing. The current prototype, “a thin sheet black on one side and white on the other”, is still far from being put into any consumer or commercial device, but the hope is there. In the past 18 months the students and researchers have developed the battery, a capacitor, and a new device that acts like both. So until this product hits the market, I guess we are stuck with keeping up with all those letters and numbers: AA, AAA, C, D, A23, AAAA, CR927….

Labels: Electronics, Industry

posted by RawburtG. @ 7:44 AM