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LG Builds Working Flexible Cable Battery

Posted by Unknown on from the warning-electro-bracelet-may-explode dept.

MrSeb writes with news on work toward flexible batteries good enough for Real World use (you have to power those flexible electrionics somehow). From the article: "LG Chem ... has devised a cable-type lithium-ion battery that's just a few millimeters in diameter, and is flexible enough to be tied in knots, worn as a bracelet, or woven into textiles. The underlying chemistry of the cable-type battery is the same as the lithium-ion battery in your smartphone or laptop — there's an anode, a lithium cobalt oxide (LCO) cathode, an electrolyte — but instead of being laminated together in layers, they're twisted into a hollow, flexible, spring-like helix. flexible batteries have been created before — but they've all just standard, flat, laminated batteries made from sub-optimum materials, such as polymers. As such, as they have very low energy density, and they're only bendy in the same way that a thin sheet of plastic is bendy. LG Chem's cable-type batteries have the same voltage and energy density as your smartphone battery — but they're thin and highly flexible to boot. LG Chem has already powered an iPod Shuffle for 10 hours using a knotted 25cm length of cable-type battery." Original paper (Extreme Tech claims it is paywalled, but it looks like it's not). The hollow core seems to be the key: "Moreover, a nonhollow anode proved to have serious problems with penetration of the electrolyte into the essential cell components such as the separator and active materials ... However, we were able to overcome these drawbacks by devising a unique architecture comprising a skeleton frame surrounding an empty space, that is, a hollow-spiral anode with a multi-helix structure This design enables easy wetting of the battery components with the electrolyte and the hollow space allows the device to compensate for any external mechanical distortion while maintaining its structural integrity. In addition, this helical architecture possibly enables the battery to be more flexible, owing to its similarity to a spring-like structure."

9 of 45 comments (clear)

  1. Quick, somebody patent this by Compaqt · · Score: 4, Funny

    Before Apple 'invents' it!

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    I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet. Blog
    1. Re:Quick, somebody patent this by citizenr · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Jokes aside, with all the recent patent trolling, we're beginning to forget that there are indeed genuine inventions on which a patent would be fully deserved. And this here is one of them.

      Except genuine invention would be describing particular manufacturing method of said cable battery. NOT an idea of "battery in a shape of cable used to power _mobile_ device" as apple likes to do it.

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      Who logs in to gdm? Not I, said the duck.
  2. That will wear out even quicker than... by pointyhat · · Score: 3, Interesting

    That will wear out quicker than the display cable on an 80's digital diary...

  3. Has already powered an.... iPod Shuffle by popo · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It's a cool technology, but the iPod shuffle can run for a billion years plugged into a potato. Can we get some actual performance data please?

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    ------ The best brain training is now totally free : )
    1. Re:Has already powered an.... iPod Shuffle by couchslug · · Score: 3, Funny

      "but the iPod shuffle can run for a billion years plugged into a potato. Can we get some actual performance data please?"

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potato#Nutrition

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      "This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
    2. Re:Has already powered an.... iPod Shuffle by popo · · Score: 3, Funny

      This poor deprived soul knows nothing of curly fries.

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      ------ The best brain training is now totally free : )
  4. Double jointed fun. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    LG Builds Working Flexible Cable Battery

    Got to power those flexible vibrators somehow.

  5. Re:Combustible clothing by Antipater · · Score: 4, Funny

    worn as a bracelet, or woven into textiles

    Just what we need, clothing that overheats and combusts.

    "Is it getting hot in here?" "OH GOD! TAKE OFF ALL YOUR CLOTHES!!"

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    Everything is better with chainsaws.
  6. Re:Combustible clothing by hamjudo · · Score: 5, Interesting
    When I worked at a lithium battery factory, we were taught to call it "out-gassing", and never to think of it as "fire". This is because a fire extinguisher would be worthless against an out-gassing battery. Just as rocket engines contain the perfect ratio of fuel to oxidizer for truly spectacular, and dangerous failures, charged batteries contain all they need to ruin your day. Smothering them in water, foam, or CO2 is not going to slow them down.

    This is why you don't see many lithium batteries in steel cases anymore. They figured that the pipe bomb configuration was a bad idea.