We may be close to getting solar paint, but spray-on batteries? Researchers at Rice University in Houston, Texas have been able to develop just that.
By deconstructing each element found in a conventional battery – electrodes, separators, electrolytes and current collectors – and incorporating them into a liquid, they have been able to create a “paint” that is capable of storing and providing electrical power like a battery does. This paint can then be applied to any surface that typical paint can be sprayed on, turning it into a power source. Researchers were able to coat various surfaces like glass and stainless steel with the paint, and were even successful at turning bathroom tiles into a power supply. Nine tiles sprayed with the paint were able to power a set of LED lights for six hours.
“This means traditional packaging for batteries has given way to a much more flexible approach that allows all kinds of new design and integration possibilities for storage devices,” said project researcher Pulickel Ajayan.
Your favorite electronic device a little too bulky in your pocket? Chances are that it’s the lithium-ion batteries taking up most of that space. Spray-on batteries could alter the size and design of nearly all battery-powered electronics. For example, a laptop using this technology wouldn’t need any space for rechargeable batteries inside its shell; the entire inside of the case could be a power source if it were coated with this new paint. This could make future laptops much thinner than even the Macbook Air is.
While the tech behind this research is not quite ready for primetime, it is encouraging that they have gotten it to work at all. As for its use in the clean tech sector, researchers believe that it could be used to create a standalone solar panel with its own built-in battery storage, which could be a real game-changer for the industry.
[Nature Scientific Reports, via Reuters]
Image Credit: Nature Scientific Reports