Plastic Battery Charges in One Minute, Lasts 1000 Cycles

Plastic Battery from Waseda University

This piece of transparent plastic is a battery?

Scientists at Japan’s Waseda University have designed a battery made of what they call a redox-active organic polymer film, essentially a transparent plastic film. It takes only a minute to charge and it could last a thousand cycles.

The scientists (we should mention the name because we owe them much) are Hiroyuki Nishide, Hiroaki Konishi and Takeo Suga. The team made the thin film battery by spin-coating a soluble polymer onto a surface. After UV irradiation, the polymer then becomes crosslinked with the help of a bisazide crosslinking agent.

The photocrosslinking method used by the Japanese team overcomes the problem of self-discharge and makes the polymer mechanically tough. You know what means?

Not only is it tough, it’s also leak-proof. Let’s see now: one minute to charge, one thousand cycles, transparent, flexible, thin, tough, not self-discharging…amazing plastic battery.

[Via: Gizmag.com]

Published by Chris Malinao

Chris teaches Lightroom as workflow software to photography students at the FPPF, Federation of Philippine Photographers Foundation. He also teaches smartphone photography.