Interdisciplinary Breakthrough

Researchers Create “Paper” Battery

Researchers with expertise in materials science, energy storage, and chemistry have developed a new energy storage device that could easily be mistaken for a simple sheet of black paper.

The nanoengineered battery is lightweight, ultra thin, completely flexible, and geared toward meeting the trickiest design and energy requirements of tomorrow’s gadgets, implantable medical equipment, and transportation vehicles.

Along with its ability to function in temperatures up to 300 degrees Fahrenheit and down to 100 below zero, the device is completely integrated and can be printed like paper. It can also function as both a high-energy battery and a high-power supercapacitor, which are generally separate components in most electrical systems. Another key feature is the capability to use human blood or sweat to help power the battery.

The semblance to paper is no accident: more than 90 percent of the device is made up of cellulose, the same plant cells used in newsprint, loose leaf, lunch bags, and nearly every other type of paper.

Rensselaer researchers infused the paper with aligned carbon nanotubes, which act as electrodes and allow the storage devices to conduct electricity. Engineered to function as both a lithium-ion battery and a supercapacitor, the device can provide a long, steady power output comparable to a conventional battery, as well as a supercapacitor’s quick burst of high energy.

“It’s essentially a regular piece of paper, but it’s made in a very intelligent way,” says paper co-author Robert Linhardt, the Ann and John H. Broadbent Jr. ’59 Senior Constellation Professor of Biocatalysis and Metabolic Engineering. “The components are molecularly attached to each other: the carbon nanotube print is embedded in the paper, and the electrolyte is soaked into the paper.”