World's First Imprintable and Bendable Li-ion Battery Created

Korean researchers have uncovered a process to create "a class of imprintable, bendable, and shape-conformable polymer electrolyte with excellent electrochemical performance in lithium battery system."

The material can be sprayed on electrodes and then baked with UV rays for about 30 minutes in order to create power units, which would provide a method considerably faster than the standard way of creating lithium-ion cells.

Professor Lee Sang-young from South Korea's Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology is the head of the project, who is working with nine additional scientists from different institutions such as Professor John A. Rogers from the University of Illinois.

"Conventional lithium-ion batteries that use liquefied electrolytes had problems with safety as the film that separates electrolytes may melt under heat, in which case the positive and negative may come in contact, causing an explosion," said The Korean Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, which is co-sponsoring the research.

"Because the new battery uses flexible but solid materials, and not liquids, it can be expected to show a much higher level of stability than conventional rechargeable batteries."

During CES, Samsung unveiled Youm, a flexible and bendable OLED display for smartphones.