The day isn’t far when our power sucking portable devices like HTC Thunderbolt and EVO 4G will run for more than an entire day and would not require an extra battery to be kept as a spare. Researchers at the University of Leeds have made a new type of gel, which is a polymer, can be used for the manufacturing of batteries. And because it is a flexible polymerized gel, it can be moulded into any shape as per the need of the device.
It has been developed by a research professor of Physics, Professor Ian Ward and his team. They achieved this by removing the need of the porous polymer film separator which are used in traditional lithium-ion batteries. They use Extrusion/Lamination, a manufacturing process patented by the team, to develop this highly conductive strip. This process sticks the electrolyte gel between the cathode and anode at around 10m per minute.
The gel is 70% liquid electrolyte which is made in the same process as is used in the manufacturing of jellies, that is adding hot electrolyte mix to a polymer which on cooling settles down as a solid flexible mass.
The strip is merely a nanometre thick but is much lighter, safer and more powerful. It reduces the manufacturing cost by 10-20% than today’s lithium-ion batteries. Trials to commercialize the battery cells have already begun at Polystor Energy Corporation, which has been licensed by the team. The project was funded and supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and Yorkshire Concept.
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