Shaped Batteries for Wearable Devices will Flourish

 

Smart wearable devices refer to the items we wear every day, such as smart helmets, smartwatches, smart rings, smart belts, smart insoles, belts, etc., with smart electronic design functions, and then quantitatively analyze the data, give recommendations, reports, and Suggest. Now there are more and more categories of wearable devices, expanding to more areas: for example, children’s safety tracking bracelets, smart clothes, smart shoes, and special warm vests for the elderly; sports are required to monitor relevant physiological information during exercise Wearable devices such as sports watches and smart bracelets are quite popular among consumers. Or combine other technologies to develop new products that fit the market.

The wearable market satisfies young people’s pursuit of coolness and individuality. It has developed rapidly in the past few years and has broad room for development in the future. Data show that in the first quarter of 2018, global wearable device shipments were 25.1 million units, a year-on-year increase of 1.2%. Among them, from Apple, Fitbit and many brands, fashionable, more expensive smart wearable devices increased by 28.4%. Watches and bracelets accounted for 95% of global wearable device shipments in the first quarter. In 2018, the total global shipments of wearable devices reached 124.9 million units, an increase of 8.2% year-on-year. With the gradual maturity of wearable technology and the continuous expansion of application scenarios, it is estimated that global wearable device shipments will reach 199.8 million units in 2020.

In order to be cooler, wearable device manufacturers put forward special requirements for batteries such as smaller size, flexibility, and irregular shapes. “Currently, the supporting batteries for wearable devices are large and small, and the specifications and parameters are not uniform. However, the industry is exploring battery products with smaller volume and higher energy density.”

Although most wearable devices use ultra-low energy BLE technology (Bluetooth Low Energy Technology), users still need to change frequently to ensure that the device is fully charged. For wearable device manufacturers, providing high-efficiency wearable new energy batteries is an urgent problem to be solved. From the perspective of wearable device designers, they also look forward to having high-quality batteries, because only in this way can they Attract more consumers to like to use their devices.

GREPOW special-shaped batteries focus on wearable battery solutions. It has the advantages of high energy density, high working voltage, wide applicable temperature range, low self-discharge rate, long cycle life, and pollution-free, which meets the battery requirements of smart wearable devices. The widespread use of smart bracelets, smartwatches, and medical applications has been recognized by many first-tier manufacturers at home and abroad, with monthly shipments of more than one million.

Compared with the past nickel-chromium batteries, GREPOW special-shaped lithium batteries “occupies” most of the market. Utilize the irregular available space of the product with maximum efficiency, meet the shape of the product that meets the needs of consumers, and improve the efficiency of space use; this kind of battery is more popular and very easy to carry because it can be put into almost any small pocket. At the same time, the production technology of GREPOW special-shaped batteries not only meets the requirements of high-voltage, high-discharge rate, and fast charging but also in addition to the production of standard 3.7V lithium-ion batteries, it can also mass-produce high-voltage batteries 3.8v and 3.85v. The product quality is better than similar products.

High discharge rate technology and the fast charging function can reduce the interval time between uses, allowing your products to be more competitive than competitors. GREPOW’s lithium polymer batteries are very small and light. Only a small amount of maintenance is required, and the cost is very low. Safe and environmentally friendly, the damage to the environment is small, and the battery is durable and has a long life. “This means that GREPOW wearable special-shaped batteries can meet the rapid development needs of current electronic products and wearable devices.” In fact, it is precise because traditional batteries are rigid, they are prone to serious safety problems when they are bent or folded. ; While the GREPOW wearable special-shaped batteries maintain good flexibility while still maintaining the original energy density without affecting the battery life of the device.

In the future, the number of wearable devices is expected to explode, which means that the demand for smaller batteries with a longer battery life will increase significantly. We can also predict that the more intelligent the equipment will be the higher the pursuit of energy efficiency. According to the current use of various wearable devices on the market, it can be said that the level of various batteries is actually not bad, and each has different advantages and disadvantages. However, scientists and professionals are working hard to improve battery capacity and further reduce battery damage to the environment. In the future, a wearable industry equipped with high-efficiency batteries will flourish!

If you are interested in our battery products, please don’t hesitate to contact us at any time!
Email: info@grepow.com
Grepow Website: https://www.grepow.com/

Related articles:

1. Lithium Batteries as a Power Source for Wearable Products
2. Special Shaped Battery Perfectly Combination with Smart Wearable Devices
3. Curved Lithium Polymer Battery – Wearable Device Mobile Power
4. Wearable Medical Technology Will Benefit Chronic Diseases Patients
5. Current Status of Wearable Devices And Future Trends
6. How Smart Wearable Medical Devices Collect Energy？
7. The Future Of Medical Wearable
8. How do I find a battery for the wearable devices?
9. Wearable Device Power Solution
10. How to optimize wearable system power management？
11. Comprehensive Power Solutions for Wearable Devices
12. All Kind of Wearable Batteries Comparison

Where to buy round battery | round battery price | round battery replacement 3.7V 960mAh GRP5545043

 

Grepow 3.7V 960mAh LiPo Round Shaped Battery 5545043 Specifications:

sorting	Shaped battery
Brand	Grepow
Capacity(mAh)	960mAh
Voltage(V)	3.7V
Discharge Rate (C)	1C
Configuration	1S1P
Net Weight(±20g)	17.6±1.0
Length(±5mm)	43
Width(±2mm)	45.1
Height(±2mm)	5.35

Applications:

Smart wearable, medical equipment and other portable devices

GREPOW is a high-technology lithium-polymer battery specialist who is capable of providing fully integrated battery solutions to power wide range of electronics equipment.

When the dimension and weight of electronics is critical, GREPOW’s special shaped batteries are proven to deliver good durability and reliability, outstanding performance and long cycle life for fast-growing smart, mobile and wearable electronics.

See more Round Batteries' instruction to the link: https://www.grepow.com/page/round-lithium-polymer-battery.html

Round battery products you may be interested in:

• Grepow 3.7V 630mAh 1S1P LiPo Round Shaped Battery 6035033
• Grepow 3.7V 835mAh LiPo Irregular Round Shaped Battery 7042030
• Grepow 145mAh 3.8V Round Shaped Lipo Battery 2530027
• Grepow 1500mAh 3.7V Round Shaped Lipo Battery 7550040

Lithium Polymer Battery Development in Recent Years

 

Lithium polymer batteryrefers to the secondary battery, which uses lithium compounds as anode and cathode material. In the charging and discharging process, lithium-ion discharges and inserts back and forth between the two electrodes.  

Compared with a traditional lead-acid battery such as chromium and nickel batteries, lithium polymer batteries with high energy density, long cycle life, charge and discharge performance is good, the use of high voltage, no memory effect, less pollution, and safety higher advantages, at the same time relative to the various types of fuel cells, air batteries and ultracapacitors batteries, lithium polymer battery technology mature. 

In recent years, with the maturity of the process, the price gradually declined, the cost performance advantage is prominent. With excellent battery performance, environmental protection, and price advantages, lithium polymer batteries continue to increase the market share in the battery industry.

Global lithium battery industry situation

With the rapid development of mobile devices, power tools, energy storage, etc., the global demand for lithium polymer batteries has grown rapidly and has driven the development of the lithium polymer industry.

In terms of market demand, according to Zhen Li Research, the market demand for lithium polymer batteries will continue to grow at a rapid annual growth rate of nearly 50% in the next five years.

2018, global demand will exceed 385 million kWh, which is 7 times over 2013, exceed the lead-acid battery to be the largest secondary battery product.

Global lithium battery market development from 2011 to 2018

In terms of industrial scale, according to IIT statistics, from 2005 to 2013, the global lithium battery market grew from 5.6 billion US dollars to 14.1 billion US dollars, with a compound annual growth rate of 12.1%. It is estimated that the market scale will be 42.2 billion US dollars in 2022. The annual compound annual growth rate is expected to be 12.9%).

Global lithium  polymer battery market scale trend and forecast for 2005-2022

Lithium polymer battery industry situation in China

Lithium polymer battery market demand in China

Driven by national policies and downstream industries, the annual demand for the lithium battery market in China from 2011 to 2014 was increased, with 44.79% in 2011, 67.26% in 2013, and a compound annual growth rate of 55.62% from 2011-2013. It is estimated to be more than 60% in 2014(Figure 3). Among them, the driving force for market growth in 2013 mainly came from smartphones, mobile power supplies, electric bicycles, etc. In addition to the above markets, the biggest driving force in 2014 came from electric vehicles and base station power supplies. Moreover, in the global market demand, the proportion of the Chinese market has also risen rapidly. In 2011 and 2012, it was between 17% and 18%. In 2013, it quickly rose to 21.5% (25%). The proportion in 2014 is still rising.

Statistics of Lithium battery market demand in China from 2011 to 2014

Lithium polymer battery production and industrial scale in China

The rapid growth of market demand has led to an increase in the production of domestic lithium batteries and an expanding industrial scale. In terms of production, according to AskCIData data, China’s lithium battery production in 2014 reached 5.28 billion pcs, an increase of 10.9% compared with last year. From 2010 to 2014, China’s lithium battery production continued to grow substantially, with growth rates above 10%.

In terms of industrial scale, according to CCM data, in 2014, the market size of the lithium polymer battery was 71.5 billion yuan, up 21.1% year-on-year. Among them, lithium polymer batteries in the 3C market grew by 6%, and the national sales scale was 58 billion yuan. Energy storage lithium polymer batteries, including communications and new energy applications, demand scale 1.5 billion yuan. In 2018, the lithium polymer battery industry surge to 400%, reaching 20 billion Ah, more than twice the global capacity in 2013.

Best Custom Medical Battery Solution for Top Medical Device Companies

 Advanced lithium battery technology delivers unparalleled efficiency and convenience for everything from smartphones to portable medical devices. The advantages are significant. Using a lithium battery can reduce the weight of the device and extend the working time between charges, making it more useful for providing medical care.

Medical Grade Lithium Batteries As you might expect, the safe integration of lithium batteries into the design is not only a major issue but also a challenge for medical device developers. Fortunately, many regulatory agencies such as UL, IEC, and FDA provide certification to regulate the safety of medical devices and the lithium batteries that power them. All certificates focus on the end user's security protection of the medical device in the target operating environment.

Medical device providers must comply with safety certificate guidelines

GREPOW believes that every medical device provider must comply with the safety certificate guidelines to provide users with safety and comfort. This is a problem because the current limited understanding of lithium battery technology and the risk of liability for lithium battery technology may pose greater risks to related equipment. Medical device developers need to fully understand and adopt the characteristics of lithium batteries in product design to minimize risk and exposure.

For example, developers who must use rectangular lithium polymer batteries to install into their medical devices may experience the inconsistent performance, expansion rates, and reliability issues after the use of Li-Po batteries. We have the knowledge of designing batteries to maintain good performance under these adverse conditions. The expansion rate and reliability issues after use. We have the knowledge of designing batteries to maintain good performance under these adverse conditions. The expansion rate and reliability issues after use. We have the knowledge of designing batteries to maintain good performance under these adverse conditions.

Medical device manufacturers should purchase certified lithium batteries

Medical grade batteries In order to comply with all medical certificates, lithium batteries must be produced by UL-certified factories. From chemical production to battery assembly and final testing, lithium battery production must be performed in a UL certified facility.

Any medical device manufacturer should not purchase lithium batteries from a factory that is not UL listed because they will not receive FDA approval. Therefore, in order to serve our customers, GREPOW has taken all necessary steps to obtain UL certification for our manufacturing plants.

In order to obtain FDA approval, there is a high demand for documentation on testing, safety and quality standards, and performance for UL certified plants. UL, IEC, and FDA have extensive documentation requirements to ensure the safe production of medical devices and to operate safely in medical environments.

Regulators may not know exactly what the medical device does. However, they do understand the materials involved and provide guidelines to medical device manufacturers to produce their products in a manner that prevents failures that could result in personal injury or death. The goal is to ensure that no accidents occur.

If an error occurs, these guidelines can also help the OEM and its supply chain track the root cause to prevent the error from occurring again. In order to properly track responsibilities, these regulators require complete documentation from equipment manufacturers and lithium battery manufacturers.

The design solution for the medical devices power requirements

GREPOW has been designing and manufacturing lithium battery pack solutions for medical applications for many years. The expertise we have gained enables our experts to find the right lithium chemistry formula and meet the specific needs of portable medical devices with a well-designed Smart Battery Management System (BMS).

With a wealth of experience, medical device developers should now work with GREPOW as their professional medical lithium battery manufacturer instead of trying to develop their own battery solutions. We focus on the technical challenges of integrating battery power in a way that balances performance and safety in the best possible way.

Our medical product lines are also diverse. We can support all medical devices with battery voltage requirements from 3.7V to 60V DC and capacities from 450mAh to 80Ah.

OEMs and other medical device developers should seek professional advice or cooperation advice from GREPOW before taking the next step. For more details on how GREPOW designs the best solution for the power requirements of medical devices, please see our custom battery solution page.

GREPOW medical battery in the design phase

The design of the GREPOW medical battery completely solves the OEM safety problem. The standards we use in the development of medical batteries consider the worst-case scenario of abusing lithium batteries in any operating environment. E.g:

• Medical equipment on fire: The mechanical design of the GREPOW medical battery allows the shape of the battery pack to be changed to prevent explosions, which can cause debris and damage.
• The battery BMS is designed to be redundant and meets all hypothetical safety issues for UL inspectors.
• Pass the high-temperature aging test, low-temperature aging test
• Batch processing test with long batch processing
• Drop and impact test
• The physical destructive penetration test

These tests were conducted to evaluate the design of the GREPOW medical battery to understand how the GREPOW medical battery performs in protecting users in the event of any form of damage or environmental disaster. We can say with certainty that our battery design has passed these tests before it is produced.

Medical battery production at UL-certified factories

In order to comply with all medical certificates, lithium batteries must be produced by a UL-certified factory. From chemical production to battery pack assembly and final testing, lithium batteries must be produced in UL-certified plants. In the process of applying for FDA approval, the requirements for testing, safety and quality standards, and performance documentation for UL certified plants are high. Any medical device manufacturer should not purchase lithium batteries from a factory that is not UL listed because they will not receive FDA approval.

GREPOW's factories have passed UL certification for our medical battery product line.

As noted above, UL, IEC, and FDA have extensive documentation requirements to ensure the safe production of medical devices and safe operation when used in a medical environment. We actively support OEM customers' applications by obtaining all the documentation required for regulatory approval.

 GREPOW Medical Battery Features

• Meets UL / IEC / UN safety guidelines
• Prepare to provide quality and safety documentation to support OEM FDA applications
• Safety design for overcharge/discharge protection
• Safety design for overcurrent protection
• High-temperature performance and safe design for protection
• The unique mechanical design prevents injury in catastrophic conditions
• Accelerate equipment development schedule (accelerate market launch)

Custom battery solutions to meet the medical application's needs

GREPOW is committed to using clean energy technologies to promote sustainability and create a better world. We plan to develop high-security, high-quality batteries for medical applications. Our medical batteries can be customized to integrate your creativity and meet specific needs.

With over 20 years of customer service experience, Grepow has developed a very complete service system, specifically tailored for our customers, which helps us in better understanding your needs in the first step of our communication, in a highly time-efficient way.

If you are interested in our customized battery, please don't hesitate to contact us at any time!
Email: info@grepow.com
Grepow Website: https://www.grepow.com/

Introduction of battery types

 

1. Primary batteries: Disposable and can not be used repeatedly

Carbon zinc batteries, alkaline batteries, paste zinc manganese batteries, cardboard zinc manganese batteries, alkaline zinc manganese batteries, button batteries (button zinc silver batteries, button lithium manganese batteries, button zinc manganese batteries), zinc-air batteries, primary lithium manganese batteries, etc., mercury batteries.

According to the use of the isolation layer is divided into paste and plate batteries, and plate batteries are divided into C-type (ammonium) and P-type (zinc) cardboard batteries according to different electrolyte liquid.

The traditional paste type zinc-manganese dry cell battery adopts the natural manganese dioxide with lower activity as the cathode material, the isolation layer is the paste isolation layer of starch and flour, the electrolyte is the aqueous solution of ammonium chloride and zinc chloride based on H4CL, and the cathode is a zinc cylinder, its discharge performance is generally poor, its capacity is low, and the battery is prone to leakage at the end of service, but the price is cheap.

C-type (ammonium) cardboard battery is based on the paste type battery with pulp layer paper instead of paste paper, not only the positive electrode filling capacity is increased by about 30%, but also 30-70% high activity manganese instead of natural manganese, so the capacity can be increased and the range of use can be expanded, mostly used for small current discharge occasions, such as clocks, remote control, radio, flashlight and other occasions.

P-type (zinc) cardboard battery adopts zinc chloride as the main electrolyte, and all the cathode materials are made of high activity manganese powder, such as electrolytic manganese, active manganese, etc. Its leak-proof performance is much higher than that of paste and C-type battery.

Cylindrical alkaline zinc-manganese battery alkaline battery, also known as alkaline manganese battery, is the best performance of the zinc-manganese battery series. The battery uses aqueous solution of potassium hydroxide (KOH) or sodium hydroxide (NaOH) as electrolyte liquid, and adopts the opposite cathode structure with zinc-manganese battery, the cathode inside is paste-like colloid with copper nail as collector, the positive pole outside, the active material and conductive material are pressed into a ring to connect with the battery shell, and the positive and negative poles are separated by a special diaphragm.

The casing is generally made of 08F nickel-plated steel strip by cold-rolling and stamping, and is also used as the positive collector, the positive electrolytic manganese dioxide material is pressed into a ring close to the inner wall of the column to ensure good contact, and the negative electrode is made of powdered zinc particles and paste in the middle of the battery, with the negative collector inserted between it (the negative electrode is generally a copper nail), and the collector is connected to the bottom of the negative electrode. The battery is separated by a nylon or polypropylene sealing ring, and the battery is almost identical to the general battery.

2. Secondary battery: rechargeable and reusable.

Secondary alkaline zinc-manganese battery, nickel-cadmium rechargeable battery, nickel-metal hydride rechargeable battery, lithium rechargeable battery, lead-acid battery, solar battery. Lead-acid batteries can be divided into open-type lead-acid batteries, fully enclosed lead-acid batteries.

Ni-Cd(Ni-Cd)chemicalbatteries(secONdarybatteries)

Nickel-metal hydride Ni-MH

Li-ion,lithiumbatteries

lead-acid batteries

Other

physicalenergy

Solarcellbatteries

microbial cell

Polymer batteries

Any kind of battery consists of four basic parts, four important parts are two different materials of electrode, electrolyte, separator and shell.

3. Green battery

It refers to a kind of high-performance, non-polluting batteries that have been put into use or are being developed in recent years, including nickel metal hydride batteries and lithium-ion batteries that have been put into use, alkaline mercury-free zinc-manganese primary batteries that are being promoted for use, fuel-powered batteries and solar cells (photovoltaic cells).

4.Lead-acid batteries

In 1859, Plante (France) discovered that a battery consists of five basic parts, including a positive plate, a negative plate, an electrolyte, a separator, and a container (battery tank). The battery is made of lead dioxide as positive active substance, lead as negative active substance, sulfuric acid as electrolyte, and microporous rubber, sintered polyvinyl chloride, glass fiber, polypropylene, etc. as separator.

5.Nickel cadmium batteries and metal hydride batteries

Both use nickel oxide or nickel hydroxide as the positive electrode, aqueous potassium hydroxide or sodium hydroxide as the electrolyte solution, and cadmium metal or metal hydride as the negative electrode. Metal hydride batteries were invented at the end of 1980s by using the electrochemical reversibility of the reaction between hydrogen absorbing alloy and hydrogen releasing, and are the leading products of small secondary batteries.

6.Lithium ion battery

Batteries that use lithium metal or lithium compounds as the active material are commonly known as lithium ion batteries, and are divided into primary lithium ion batteries and secondary lithium ion batteries.

It is a battery made of carbon materials that can embed and de-embed lithium ions instead of pure lithium as the negative electrode, lithium compounds as the positive electrode, and mixed electrolyte liquid as the electrolyte liquid.

Lithium ion battery cathode material is usually lithium active compound composition, the cathode is a special molecular structure of carbon. When charging, the potential applied to the two poles of the battery forces the positive compound to release lithium ions, which are embedded in the carbon of the negative molecule arranged in a lamellar structure. When discharged, the lithium ions are precipitated from the carbon in the lamellar structure and combine with the compound of the positive electrode again. By the movement of the lithium ion, an electric current appears.

Although the chemical reaction principle is very simple, however, in the actual industrial production, there are many practical issues to consider: the material of the positive electrode should be additive to maintain the activity of multiple charge and discharge, the material of the negative electrode should be designed at the molecular structure level to accommodate more lithium ions; the electrolyte filled between the positive and negative electrode, in addition to maintaining stability, but also has a good electrical conductivity, in order to reduce the internal resistance of the battery.

Although lithium-ion batteries have almost no memory effect, but, lithium-ion battery capacity will still be reduced after multiple charges, the important reason is the anode and cathode material itself changes. From the molecular level, the cavity structure on the anode to accommodate lithium ions will gradually collapse, blocked; from a chemical point of view, the anode and cathode material activity passivation, a side reaction to generate stable other compounds. Physically, there will also be a gradual peeling of the cathode material, etc., in short, eventually reducing the number of lithium ions in the battery can be free to move in the charging and discharging process.

Overcharging and overdischarge will cause permanent damage to the anode and cathode of the lithium-ion battery, from the molecular level, it can be intuitively understood that overdischarge will lead to excessive release of lithium ions from the cathode carbon and make its lamellar structure collapse, overcharging will force too many lithium ions into the cathode carbon structure to go, and make some of the lithium ions can no longer be released. This is why lithium ion batteries are usually equipped with charge and discharge control circuit.

7. Fuel Power Battery

A device that uses a direct connection between a fuel (e.g. hydrogen or hydrogen-containing fuel) and an oxidizer (e.g. pure oxygen or oxygen in air) to generate electricity. It has a high efficiency, an electrochemical reaction conversion efficiency of 40% or more, and no polluting gas emissions.

Every time you use the walkie-talkie battery that has been out of use for more than 2 months, it should be completely discharged and then completely charged.

Nickel Chromium battery (NickelCadmium) or Nickel Hydride battery (NickeMetalHydride) charge 14-16 hours.

Lithium ion battery and lithium polymer battery (Lithiumlon/polymer): the first charge when the indicator light turns green and then charged for 1-2 hours.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Flexible Metal-air Battery’s Research Progress

 

With the development of flexible and wearable electronic devices, flexible energy storage devices have attracted extensive attention from the scientific and industrial communities. In recent years, a series of works have been carried out around flexible lithium-ion batteries and supercapacitors, and important progress has been made.

However, in order to extend the life of electronic devices, energy storage systems need to have a higher energy density. Flexible metal-air batteries that can be cyclically charged and discharged will greatly improve the endurance of flexible and wearable electronic devices, but more challenges need to be addressed.

On the one hand, the energy density, energy efficiency, and cycle life of the battery need to be improved; on the other hand, the electrode structure, electrolyte materials, and battery structure need to be optimized to maintain stable electrochemical performance under deformation conditions.

This article will introduce the recent advances in the structural design, electrode and electrolyte material development, and operating condition management of flexible metal-air batteries, mainly zinc-air and lithium-air batteries, and discusses future research directions and prospects.

Metal-air batteries have attracted extensive research attention due to their high theoretical capacity and energy density as shown in Figure 1. Among them, rechargeable zinc-air batteries in alkaline systems and lithium-air batteries in organic systems as typical representatives of aqueous and non-aqueous systems are the hotspots of recent research.

The working principle of the battery is shown in Figure 2. When the battery is prepared to be flexible, it is necessary to design new flexible structures, prepare flexible electrode materials, and solid electrolyte membranes to face more challenges.

Fig. 1 Comparison of capacity, energy density, and voltage of different metal-air batteries

 

Schematic diagram of the working principle of zinc-air battery in an alkaline system and lithium-air battery in a non-aqueous system.

Flexible battery structure and testing

The current cell structure widely used in flexible zinc-air and lithium-air batteries is a sandwich structure consisting of a flexible positive electrode, an electrolyte membrane, and a negative electrode stacked on top of each other. Another structure is a tubular one that uses a wire-shaped metal electrode with an electrolyte layer and an air electrode layer wrapped around the surface in turn. In addition, there are some new structures, such as a foldable battery structure and a flexible, ultra-light lithium-air battery inspired by bamboo sticks.

In addition to the charge/discharge and cycle life tests in conventional batteries, stability under external forces is of paramount importance for testing flexible batteries. These include electrochemical stability under bending, twisting at different angles and stretching at different lengths, as well as retention of performance under long-term fatigue.

Metal electrode

In flexible air batteries, metal sheets are often used directly as electrodes. However, the metal sheet may suffer from fatigue failure in long-term bending. In flexible zinc-air batteries, there is a combination of metal powder and binder and conductive carbon powder to form a composite electrode, which improves the flexibility and stability of the electrode. In flexible lithium-empty batteries, lithium metal and stainless steel mesh are rolled together to improve the fatigue resistance of the metal electrode.

In addition, in order to achieve a certain stretchability in a flexible battery, the metal electrodes can be made into a spring-like material or a combination of small pieces and a complete electrode to meet the need for stretching through the “integer into zero”.

Electrolyte film

In flexible zinc-air batteries, anion exchange membranes and alkaline gel electrolytes are mainly used as the electrolyte membranes of the batteries. In flexible lithium-air batteries, the electrolyte membranes mainly include gel, solid and composite polymer electrolyte membranes. In order to achieve the good electrochemical performance of flexible batteries, the electrolyte membrane is required to have good conductivity, chemical, and electrochemical stability and other properties of traditional liquid electrolytes, in addition to the interfacial problem with metal and air electrodes is a challenge that needs to be solved.

For the electrolyte membrane-metal electrode interface, the problems of dendrite and surface passivation need to be overcome. For the electrolyte membrane-air electrode interface, the solid electrolyte greatly reduces the effective reaction interface. For lithium-air batteries, the degradation of the reaction area is further exacerbated by the fact that the product is solid lithium peroxide. Thus, effective methods are needed to increase the reaction interface.

In addition, during the bending or twisting of the battery, the electrode and electrolyte membrane may separate due to differences in the mechanical properties of the electrode and electrolyte membranes. How to maintain the stability of the interface is the key to ensure the long-term stable operation of the battery.

Air electrode

Air electrodes, as an important component of metal-air batteries, have been the focus of research. On the one hand, an effective catalyst is needed to achieve rapid charging and discharging of the battery; on the other hand, a suitable structure is needed to ensure oxygen transport. In flexible batteries, it is even more necessary for the electrode to have good flexibility to meet the needs of deformation.

Currently, the main flexible electrodes include：

1. Electrodes consisting of a network of carbon cloth or carbon fiber.
2. e.g. carbon nanotube paper, graphite paper electrodes made of carbon nanotube materials (e.g. carbon nanotubes, graphene).
3. Electrodes formed from metal substrates such as stainless steel mesh, nickel mesh.
4. Some other new flexible electrodes.

operation management

Typically, zinc-air batteries operate directly in the air, while lithium-air batteries operate in oxygen. The operating conditions can seriously affect the performance of the battery. First of all, moisture in the air will affect the stability of the electrolyte film, while carbon dioxide in the air has a greater impact: carbonate will be formed in zinc-air batteries, affecting the conductivity of the electrolyte; and lithium carbonate will be formed as a solid by-product in lithium-air batteries, affecting the charging performance of the battery. Secondly, battery performance is usually tested at room temperature, while the actual use of the temperature has a large variation. For example, in wearable devices, the operating temperature of the battery may rise to thirty degrees or more due to contact with the human body. In different seasons and regions, the temperature will vary even more. Therefore, future battery testing will need to look in more detail at stability under different gas atmospheres and temperatures, and adopt appropriate management measures.

Future developments of flexible batteries

In recent years, a number of advances have been made in flexible metal-air batteries, with substantial hints of the energy density, efficiency, and cycle life of the batteries. Future research needs to further address the following issues.

1. New structural design of the battery, which meets the requirement of maintaining stable electrochemical performance under various deformation conditions.
2. The establishment of evaluation criteria to standardize the assessment of battery performance, such as the specification of accepted flexibility test standards (e.g., bending and twisting angles, tensile lengths, fatigue tests, etc.) based on uniform mass or volume.
3. development of flexible components, including metal and air electrodes, electrolyte membranes, collectors, and encapsulation materials.

Fourth, the management of the operating conditions will ensure that stable electrochemical performance is provided under different conditions.

In conclusion, future research needs to use a combination of experimental online monitoring and numerical simulation and other technical means to clearly elucidate the relationship between material transport, structural changes, and electrochemical reactions during battery operation to provide important guidance for rational battery design.

Related Articles：

1. Flexible Battery for Wearable Electronics
2. A Review of Flexible Battery Manufacturers
3. Flexible Batteries will Change the Future of Smart Devices
4. A Flexible Battery With a Thickness of Less Than 1 mm has been Developed in Japan
5. Flexible Paper Battery Offers Future Power
6. Highly Flexible High-energy Textile Lithium Battery for Wearable Electronics
7. Flexible Batteries Enable More Space in Foldable Phones

More about flexible batteries can be found on the page: https://www.grepow.com/page/shaped-battery.html

Contact us at info@grepow.com