Paper-Thin, Bendable Batteries in the Future - Bendable Battery Using Nanotubes
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Bendable Battery Using Nanotubes
A recent report in the National Academy of Sciences showed how students at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) basically stumbled onto the discovery of a new paper-like, bendable battery. One group of students, at the Troy, New York college were working on a way to dissolve paper and to cast it into membranes for use in a dialysis machine. Another group of students at the same school were working on a project trying to make carbon nanotube composites using polymers. As fate would have it, the two groups of students got together, and they figured out that they could use the paper instead of the polymers. After an additional 18 months of development, the students at RPI had developed a bendable battery and capacitor made of paper.
One of the instructors at RPI, Pulickel Ajayan, has said that one potential application of this battery could include using it in combination with solar cells to help store energy until it is needed. Experts agree that one of the huge advantages of this type of battery is that it is so thin and can be rolled up and laid out like a sheet of paper. Some experts do argue, though, that the use of nanotubes is very expensive, and thus would not be practical for use in most applications where a more inexpensive power source can be used. Some experts will also argue that traditional batteries currently produce more power than the prototype bendable batteries.
Despite these minor set-backs, development will surely continue on these thin batteries. There is no denying the potential of these types of power sources because of their flexibility and thin stature, which could be ideal for certain applications where space is limited.
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