Wearable electronics are finding new applications in healthcare monitoring, intelligent textiles, smartphones, Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking, and the Internet of Things (IoT). The problem has always been the bulk of the lithium ion battery needed to power such devices. Now, researchers at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) have developed a highly flexible, high-energy Textile Lithium Battery that offers more stable, durable and safe energy supply for wearable electronics. Their work is described in a university news release.solar street light lithium battery
Professor Zheng Zijian, who leads the ITC research team, said in the news release, "Wearable technology has been named as the next global big market opportunity after smartphones. Global market revenues for wearable devices are forecasted to grow by leaps and bounds, of over 20% annually, to reach US$100 billion by 2024. As all wearable electronics will require wearable energy supply, our novel technology in fabricating Textile Lithium Battery offers promising solution to a wide array of next-generation applications, ranging from healthcare, infotainment, sports, aerospace, fashion, IoT to any sensing or tracking uses that may even exceed our imagination of today."
The new technology applies PolyU's patented Polymer-Assisted Metal Deposition (PAMD), in which, “highly conductive metal, copper (Cu) and nickel (Ni) are uniformly and conformally deposited onto pre-treated fabrics.” According to PolyU, such fabricated metallic fabrics, featuring low sheet resistance and large surface area, serve as current collectors in battery. Active materials are added that act as cathode and anode, the metallic fabrics, together with separator and electrolyte, are assembled into the Textile Lithium Battery.
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