Scientists say paper battery could be in the works

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Mon Dec 7, 4:28 pm ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Ordinary paper could one day be used as a lightweight battery to power the devices that are now enabling the printed word to be eclipsed by e-mail, e-books and online news.

Scientists at Stanford University in California reported on Monday they have successfully turned paper coated with ink made of silver and carbon nanomaterials into a "paper battery" that holds promise for new types of lightweight, high-performance energy storage.

The same feature that helps ink adhere to paper allows it to hold onto the single-walled carbon nanotubes and silver nanowire films. Earlier research found that silicon nanowires could be used to make batteries 10 times as powerful as lithium-ion batteries now used to power devices such as laplop computers.

"Taking advantage of the mature paper technology, low cost, light and high-performance energy-storage are realized by using conductive paper as current collectors and electrodes," the scientists said in research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

This type of battery could be useful in powering electric or hybrid vehicles, would make electronics lighter weight and longer lasting, and might even lead someday to paper electronics, the scientists said. Battery weight and life have been an obstacle to commercial viability of electric-powered cars and trucks.

"Society really needs a low-cost, high-performance energy storage device, such as batteries and simple supercapacitors," Stanford assistant professor of materials science and engineering and paper co-author Yi Cui said.

Cui said in an e-mail that in addition to being useful for portable electronics and wearable electronics, "Our paper supercapacitors can be used for all kinds of applications that require instant high power."

"Since our paper batteries and supercapacitors can be very low cost, they are also good for grid-connected energy storage," he said.

Peidong Yang, professor of chemistry at the University of California-Berkeley, said the technology could be commercialized within a short time.

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美研制出纸电池 效率可达离子电池10倍

　　新浪科技讯 北京时间12月8日消息，据国外媒体报道，将来有一天，轻型电池可以用普通的纸生产，为目前正在使印刷品慢慢消失的电子邮件、电子书和网络新闻等的发送和阅读装置供电。

　　美国加利福尼亚州斯坦福大学的科学家7日在报告中说，他们已经成功地把涂上一层银碳纳米材料的纸转变成“纸电池”，有望成为一种全新的轻型高效蓄能的方法。帮助涂层附着在纸上的同一特性使它附着在单壁碳纳米管和镀银纳米线薄膜上。初步的研究发现，利用硅纳米线制成的电池，效率是现在用来给笔记本电脑等装置供电的锂离子电池的10倍。

　　科学家在发表在《美国国家科学院院刊》上的一篇论文中说：“利用成熟的造纸技术，通过把具有传导性的纸作为集电器和电极，可以制成低成本、轻薄和高效的蓄电仪器。”

　　人们可以利用这种电池为电子仪器或者混合动力车供能。利用这种电池，电子仪器会变得更轻，持续时间更长，而且有一天可能会产生纸电子产品。电池的重量和寿命是电力车和货车在商用发展方面遇到的一大障碍。

　　斯坦福大学原料科学及工程学副教授和这篇论文的联合作者崔义(Yi Cui)说：“我们的社会确实需要一种低成本、高能蓄能设备，例如电池和简易超级电容器等。”崔艺表示，除了便携电子仪器和佩戴式电子仪器可以使用它以外，“我们的纸超级电容器还可应用到所有需要瞬时大功率能量的设备上。由于我们的纸电池和超级电容器的成本很低，它们还适用于并网能量储备。”加州大学伯克利分校的化学教授杨培东(Peidong Yang)表示，该技术会在短期内实现商业化。

源济