Battery Innovation: From Use-and-Throw to Use-and-Dissolve
BENGALURU: Batteries provide energy to run electronic devices longer enough to serve their purposes. But it is not the same while working with ‘transient electronics’ which gets tainted when exposed to heat, light, or moisture; once the devices have served their purpose. Iowa University scientists have developed a battery for ‘transient electronic’ devices which get degraded when it comes in contact with water reports Economic Times.
Transient electronics is relatively a new field and a team led by Prof. Reza Montazami developed a 2.5 volts lithium-ion battery that gets dissolved within 30 minutes in water. The scientists also confirmed that energy of the battery is enough to run a desktop calculator roughly for 15 minutes.
The 2.5 volts battery is equipped with an anode, cathode, and electrolyte separator. The eight layers, within battery, are surrounded by two layers of polyvinyl alcohol-based polymer. The polymer when comes in contact with water causes battery to swell and break. The anode and cathode released then get dissolved in water. The advantage of using the battery is that it does not leave any harmful chemical particles that pollute environment. Therefore, the battery can be viewed as eco-friendly electronics that can be dissolved after their utilization. The battery also emits nano-particles while breaking and it gets dispersed into the environment without degrading.
Scientists even suggested using multiple smaller ‘transient batteries’ to deliver more power than using larger batteries. The team further added that larger batteries give out more power but they take longer time to degrade as compared to smaller ‘transient batteries’. Montazami further added that, “It's the first transient battery to demonstrate the power, stability and shelf life for practical use.”
