|
Paper Batteries: An Idea Whose Time is Coming |
|
|
|
Dr. Samuel Says -
Smart Design
|
|
Written by Dr. Samuel Centralia, Ph.D., D.D.S., Esq.
|
|
Tuesday, 14 August 2007 |
PNASUSA is an acronym I've long enjoyed, as I suspect you have. It stands for the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. A venerable scientific publication, PNASUSA (PNAS for short) publishes research reports, colloquium papers, reviews, etc. It's good for breakfast reading, I've found. Along with Marmaduke, of course. I'll tell you what -- that dog is huge, and the joke somehow never gets old!
 Sarcasm aside, a recent report in PNAS details the current state of
paper batteries. Flexible, thin and light -- as you might expect --
paper batteries are particularly promising in that they integrate all
components into a single structure. Paper batteries use
millionth-of-an-inch-thick carbon nanotubes, embedded in paper and
soaked in liquid electrolytes.
Professor Robert Linhardt, of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute,
dumbs it down nicely for the BBC : "Think of all the disadvantages of an
old TV set with tubes. The warm-up time, power loss, component
malfunction; you don't get those problems with integrated devices. When
you transfer power from one component to another you lose energy. But
you lose less energy in an integrated device."
Paper batteries can be stacked together -- 500 sheets equals 500 times
the voltage. Or cut in half -- half a sheet equals half the power.
That's the appealing part about paper-based full integration,
especially for manufacturers. Because they are primarily carbon and
paper, such batteries can be more safely used inside the body, to power
pacemakers or monitoring devices. (The battery could use using the
body's own blood as the electrolyte.) Maybe they'll power those
iCochlear Implants we keep hearing about. You didn't ask but I'm
telling you anyway: One particularly, um … resourceful branch of paper
battery research concerns converting urine into electricity .
Electrolytes again, you see.
By the way, hardcore science aficionados will want to note that PNAS
now publishes an online Early Edition for that critical daily news fix.
Trackback(0)
 |
TrackBack URI for this entry
Show/Hide comments
Show/Hide comment form
