Is that little listening device in your pocket… a fire hazard?!
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.
Your smartphone’s battery hides flammable liquid fuel. Slash it, fire starts instantly. Could safer, flexible cells end phone fires forever?
Enter Peisheng He from U-C Berkeley. He invented a squishy polyacrylamide gel electrolyte that traps lithium salt and water. No flammable solvents are required for this battery hydrogel!
Researchers layered gel between bendy electrodes, forming a stretchable battery sandwich. They twisted, folded, stretched, and even knifed the battery cells! After five hundred torture cycles, they still held ninety percent charge.
That’s shockproof power for smartwatches, soft robots, maybe space suits!
Soon, cutting-edge gadgets will laugh at real cuts.
Reference: He, P. et al. (2024). Science Advances. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adu3711