Rubber batteries

By Ian Page – 2022.01.14

Michael J. Lee, Junghun Han, Kyungbin Lee, Young Jun Lee, Byoung Gak Kim, Kyu-Nam Jung, Bumjoon J. Kim, Seung Woo Lee. Elastomeric electrolytes for high-energy solid-state lithium batteries. Nature, 2022; 601 (7892): 217 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-04209-4

This is very similar to the Bristol university announcement of an aerogel battery.

The basic problem with electrodes is that as lithium enters and leaves, they expand and contract and break down. 

Lithium nickel cobalt batteries bolster a structure like layers of sheets of paper, lithium iron phosphate use a very strong crystal, with tubes that hold the lithium.

Polymers, especially elastomers that expand and contract without wear are an obvious way to go but don’t conduct electricity which makes them useless.

Conductive elastomers have been investigated both in Bristol and this group, embedding some kind of conductive plastic or organic crystals in the organic matrix to carry the current.

These seem to be easy to make and cheap in principle

This seems to have been a very successful way forward and we wait to see if it can be developed into products eventually.


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