Foldable Paper-Based Lithium-Ion Batteries

One of the most important aspects to enabling paper electronics are suitable and well integrated power sources. A convenient and useful aspect of paper is its ability to be folded into a multitude of shapes, such as those available by applying origami concepts, which can open the door for unprecedented types of paper electronics. Hence, the development of robust batteries that can also be folded is attractive for achieving good integration with paper-based devices. In this talk, I will discuss how paper folding techniques inspired from Japanese origami can be used to compact a Li-ion battery and increase its energy per footprint area. Full cells were prepared using Li₄Ti₅O₁₂ and LiCoO₂ powders deposited onto current collectors consisting of paper coated with carbon nanotubes. Folded cells showed higher areal capacities compared to the planar versions, with a 5 x 5 cell folded using the Miura-ori pattern displaying a ~14X increase in areal energy density. Furthermore, these cells could achieve extremely high levels of deformability, including foldability, bendability and twistability. This strategy represents the fusion of the art of origami, materials science, and functional energy storage devices and provides new opportunities for foldable, flexible and curvilinear electronics with new mechanical characteristics and functionalities.

 

References:

Q. Cheng, Z. Song, T. Ma, B.B. Smith, R. Tang, H. Yu, H. Jiang, C.K. Chan, Nano Lett., 13, 4969-4974 (2013).

Z. Song, T. Ma, R. Tang, Q. Cheng, X. Wang, D. Krishnaraju, R. Panat, C.K. Chan, H. Yu, H. Jiang, Nature Commun., 5, 3140 (2013).