With the ability to stretch double its length and maintain performance, this toothpaste-textured battery could enable new applications as the world marches toward one trillion connected devices.
As the world continues to become ever more interconnected, wearables, implants, and other technologies need batteries that can stretch to fit a variety of form factors. Scientists from Linköping University in Sweden developed a flexible battery—using liquid electrodes, conductive plastics, and lignin—that can stretch twice its length and maintain performance. While the battery needs to increase its voltage to compete with lithium-ion competitors, the idea shows promise for a world full of flexible technologies. On April 3, 1973, Motorola engineer Martin Cooper made the first cellphone call. Within 50 years, the number of cellphones—now empowered with all the wonders (and detriments) of the internet—has reached around 7.2 billion. This explosion of mobile technology wouldn't be possible without some serious battery advancements, and as the world rushes toward one trillion connected devices in the next decade, it'll take new innovations to power that future. Although these batteries get increasingly more impressive over time—the first smartphone, IBM's Simon, had a not-so-stellar one-hour battery life—limitations remain, including that batteries make up the bulk of most electronics and they're famously inflexible. In fact, flex a lithium-ion battery too far and you may just have a flammable disaster on your hands. Related Story This Battery Has Practically Unlimited Energy But…