Latest news with #Rahmanudin
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Scientists develop extraordinary battery tech that's like nothing seen before: 'The texture is a bit like toothpaste'
Battery scientists from Sweden could borrow some packaging tips from Colgate as they develop an amazing unit with fluid electrodes. The malleable breakthrough could transform energy storage for gadgets, according to the Linköping University research team. "The texture is a bit like toothpaste," Assistant Professor Aiman Rahmanudin said in a news release. A photo shared by the team shows a dark, pasty substance being squeezed from a tube. If it were white, it would fit the visual billing for your typical tooth cleaner. The fluid electrode opens the door for fascinating production potential. "The material can, for instance, be used in a 3D printer to shape the battery as you please," Rahmanudin added. When common lithium-ion batteries charge and discharge, ions move between solid electrodes made of often costly materials, through the electrolyte. The ones that power most devices and electric vehicles use a liquid electrolyte, though solid ones are in development. Battery innovators around the world are at work to develop better-performing packs with less expensive parts that don't require problematic foreign supply chains. The Linköping team said it's estimated that a trillion internet-connected devices will be online within the next 10 years, including phones, watches, and crucial medical tech. Bulky, solid batteries that currently power them are limited in design. "But with a soft and conformable battery, there are no design limitations. It can be integrated into electronics in a completely different way and adapted to the user," Rahmanudin said. The Sweden experts intend to succeed where others have failed by using conductive polymers and lignin, a paper production byproduct, making manufacturing somewhat circular. The plan also avoids rare materials and ones that hardened during operation in past attempts. Early test results are promising. The pack can be stretched to double its length while maintaining performance for 500 cycles, all per the summary. Should the U.S. be investing more in battery production to catch up with China? Absolutely We're investing a good amount We should be investing less I have no idea Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. Next up, the team plans to experiment with common Earth metals — zinc and manganese — to see if the additives can help increase voltage, which is just 0.9 volts now. "The battery isn't perfect. We have shown that the concept works, but the performance needs to be improved," Rahmanudin said in the release. Other bendable energy storage tech is in the works elsewhere. Scientists at the University of Maryland are proving that twisted carbon nanotubes can store loads of power. Researchers at North Carolina State are developing yarn-like supercapacitors that could be stitched into clothing to power wearable devices. It's all part of an energy revolution that is shifting how we use and store electricity, including at home. Internet-based smart homes can make managing electricity use for most of your devices and appliances a breeze, saving you money on your utility bills. Simply switching out your old lightbulbs for new LEDs can cut five times the harmful heat-trapping air pollution, saving you $600 a year if you replace at least 40. The pollution reduction is important, as most of the world suffers from poor air quality, according to the World Health Organization. The agency lists asthma, wheezing, and other respiratory problems as risks associated with the dirty air. Join our free newsletter for weekly updates on the latest innovations improving our lives and shaping our future, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
The Hill
11-04-2025
- Science
- The Hill
‘Stretchable' toothpaste-like battery offers flexible future for gadgets
Rigid, bulky batteries could one day be replaced by soft, flexible ones, a new paper argues. Scientists at a Swedish university have created a new form of soft, fluid-based battery that can be shaped to meet any form, according to findings published on Friday in Science Advances. 'The texture is a bit like toothpaste,' coauthor Aiman Rahmanudin said in a statement. That flexible quality means the ability to 3D-print the battery in any form — opening up the way for 'a new type of technology,' Rahmanudin added. In its current form, the battery is far from ready for industrial use. It can store just under 1 volt — less than 8 percent the voltage of a standard car battery. But Rahmnudin argued that it has demonstrated a breakthrough in flexibility — and that increasing the voltage can be done by adding commonly available metals, like zinc or manganese. Consumer product forecasters see a pressing need for such solutions. Some industry estimates suggest that nearly 40 billion devices worldwide will be connected to the internet by 2033 — twice the number as in 2023. That forecast demand for consumer electronics, wearable medical devices or soft robotics has driven research into new kinds of flexible batteries beyond the current metallic boxes and cylinders that now define the market. New technologies require not just long storage life but 'power sources that can bend and flex without compromising performance or durability,' according to a December survey in Science Bulletin That made it essential to design battery materials 'that can endure repetitive folding, twisting, and stretching,' the scientists in that December study noted. In the race to provide such materials, scientists are experimenting with flexible batteries using both familiar chemistries — lithium-ion and sodium-ion — as well as more novel ones, like zinc-ion, or a combination of zinc and magnesium-oxygen. Friday's study details an attempt to solve what lead researcher Rahmanudin described as the core paradox: bigger-capacity batteries require thicker electrodes — the conductive material that carries the charge from positive to negative poles. That property means that more energy storage tends to come at the price of more rigidity. The Swedish researchers say they have solved this problem by making liquid electrodes — based on a combination of flexible, conductive plastics and lignin, a polymer found in wood and bark. Lignin, which the scientists extracted from paper pulp, is a raw material plentiful in any country with a big paper industry — which includes Sweden, but also the U.S. and battery-producing giant China. That material offers a valuable upcycling of a waste product, said Mohsen Mohammadi, one of the lead authors on the paper. 'By repurposing a byproduct like lignin into a high value commodity such as a battery material we contribute to a more circular model,' he said.
