Flexible Batteries.

Flexible devices cannot be 100% flexible until all components are flexible. The battery is one of component that occupying the most space from a device like a smartphone or a tablet after the screen. Generally a battery is rigid until the last invention from Imprint Energy which design a small and thin flexible battery using zinc instead the classical materials like lithium-ion. This type of battery is designed to stay in touch with the progress of new devices like smartphones or tablets. The capacity of battery is enough to power a working day long a mobile device.
Based on lithium the batteries cannot be flexible due to a large number of packaging that surrounding material to make it safer. To build a flexible battery the researchers create the anode from zinc, the cathode was build from metal oxide, while the electrolyte is a solid polymer allowing to travel the zinc ions between anode and cathode.

Also the researchers has some problems with zinc which used in batteries cannot be rechargeable due to the occurrence of dendrites which creates problems when the battery is charging. The problem was solved using aforementioned solid electrolyte and the result is a thinner and smaller battery.
The battery is manufactured using a screen-printing technique which working like a printer but the difference is that the printer arrange the components on a thin sheet that becomes the base of the battery. Using this technique the company can create different shapes for battery and aren’t limited by design compared with classical lithium-ion batteries.
The potential of this flexible batteries is high and for start the company can manufacturing only 100 battery units per day which is far away from mass production. No details about orders or price but I hope soon to have in my hands a 100% flexible smartphone which can be transformed in a tablet.