EDITABLE SUPERCAPACITORS
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FABRIC-LIKE SUPERCAPACITOR
CUSTOMISABLE FOR WEARABLE ELECTRONICS
Scientists at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore have created a customisable, fabric-like power source that can be cut, folded or stretched without losing its function, making it suitable for wearable electronics.
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The team’s experiments also show that riting in the journal Advanced when the editable supercapacitor was Materials, the team explained paired with a sensor and placed on the that their wearable power human elbow, it performed better than source, a supercapacitor, existing stretchable supercapacitors. It works like a fast-charging battery and was able to provide a stable stream of can be recharged many times. signals even when the arm was swinging, Crucially, they have made their suwhich were then transmitted wirelessly to percapacitor customisable or ‘editable’, external devices — similarly to devices that meaning its structure and shape can captures a patient’s heart rate. be changed after it is manufactured The researchers believe that the edit— while retaining its function as a able supercapacitor could be easily masspower source. Existing stretchable supercapacitors are made into prede- The supercapacitor functions well even when stretched. produced as it would rely on existing manufacturing technologies. Production termined designs and structures, but Image credit: NTU Singapore. cost will thus be low, estimated at about the new invention can be stretched multidirectionally and is less likely to be mismatched when it is AU$0.12 to produce 1 cm2 of the material. The team has filed a patent for the technology. joined up to other electrical components. “A reliable and editable supercapacitor is important for development “Although some progress has been made on stretchable supercapacitors, traditional stretchable supercapacitors fabricated by predesigning of the wearable electronics industry,” said Professor Chen Xiaodong, structured electrodes for device assembling still lack the device-level leader of the research. “It also opens up all sorts of possibilities in editability and programmability,” the researchers wrote. “To adapt to the realm of the Internet of Things when wearable electronics can wearable electronics with arbitrary configurations, it is highly desirable reliably power themselves and connect and communicate with applito develop editable supercapacitors that can be directly transferred ances in the home and other environments. “My own dream is to one day combine our flexible supercapacitors into desirable shapes and stretchability.” The team’s supercapacitor is made of strengthened manganese with wearable sensors for health and sports performance diagnostics. dioxide nanowire composite material. While manganese dioxide is a With the ability for wearable electronics to power themselves, you common material for supercapacitors, the ultralong nanowire structure, could imagine the day when we create a device that could be used strengthened with a network of carbon nanotubes and nanocellulose to monitor a marathon runner during a race with great sensitivity, fibres, allows the electrodes to withstand the associated strains during detecting signals from both under- and over-exertion.” “Customisable and versatile, these interconnected, fabric-like power the customisation process. When edited into a honeycomb-like structure, the supercapacitor has sources are able to offer a plug-and-play functionality while maintainthe ability to store an electrical charge four times higher than most ing good performance,” added Dr Loh Xian Jun, a co-author on the existing stretchable supercapacitors. In addition, when stretched to four research. “Being highly stretchable, these flexible power sources are times its original length, it maintains nearly 98% of the initial ability to promising next-generation ‘fabric’ energy storage devices that could store electrical energy, even after 10,000 stretch-and-release cycles. be integrated into wearable electronics.”
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MARCH/APRIL 2018 45