This new stretchable battery can power wearable electronics more securely

“Until now we haven’t had a power source that could stretch and bend the way our bodies do so that we can design electronics that people can comfortably wear,” said chemical engineer Zhenan Bao, who teamed up with materials scientist Yi Cui to develop the device they described earlier in Nature Communications.

One potential application for such a device would be to power stretchable sensors designed to stick to the skin to monitor heart rate and other vital signs as part of the BodyNet wearable technology being developed in Bao’s lab, the press release said.

How the stretchable battery is different from conventional one

Even though the use of plastics or polymers in lithium-ion batteries is not new, it has been only used as electrolytes– the energy source that transports negative ions to the battery’s positive pole. Those polymer electrolytes have been flowable gels that could, in some cases, leak or burst into flame, the press release said.

To avoid such risks, the researchers developed a polymer that is solid and stretchable rather than gooey and potentially leaky. Still, the new polymer is able to carry the electric charge between the battery’s poles. According to the research team, the experimental battery maintained a constant power output even when squeezed, folded and stretched to nearly twice its original length, in their lab test.

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However, the thumbnail-sized prototype stores roughly half as much energy, ounce for ounce, as a comparably sized conventional battery. The researchers are working to increase the stretchable battery’s energy density, build larger versions of the device and run future experiments to demonstrate its performance outside the lab.