Enabling Deformable and Stretchable Batteries

Abstract

Deformable energy storage devices are needed to power next-generation wearable electronics that interface intimately with the human skin. Currently, deformable energy storage devices demonstrate poor performance compared to rigid lithium-ion counterparts, forcing wearable manufacturers to design their devices around bulky battery compartments. However, technological advances to create deformable batteries at the component and device level have yielded continuous improvement in stretchable batteries over the last five years. In this essay, the major strategies at the component and device level that have been successfully employed to create stretchable batteries are reviewed.The outstanding challenges facing deformable energy storage are also discussed, namely energy density, packaging, delamination, device integration, and manufacturing. This essay will give researchers interested in contributing to the development of deformable batteries a cursory This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.understanding of the most successful strategies to date and provide insight into the most important directions to pursue in the future.Deformable batteries are needed to enable the next generation of skin-conformable electronics. This essay describes past strategies to enable stretchable batteries at the device and component level. These strategies have led to significant advances in stretchable battery technology, however there are still limitations that must be overcome. This essay also describes the five main challenges facing the development of deformable batteries.

Deep learning-enabled triboelectric smart socks for IoT-based gait analysis and VR applications

“…More importantly, the privacy issue is not comprised when we use the socks for such purposes. In the future, the entire system could be flexible integrating the flexible print circuit boards (PCBs) with our sock, which would further improve the wearing comfortability of the system [73][74][75][76] . In short, with the integrated information collected from this sock, and additional wearable sensors and neural electrodes, this platform paves the way to the realization of the digital human technology in near future (Fig.…”

Polymers in Lithium‐Ion and Lithium Metal Batteries

“…[30][31][32] Polymer electrolytes represent a promising candidate, with desirable mechanical properties and excellent processability. [33,34] They are usually soft and capable of conformally contacting the electrodes, leading to a low interfacial resistance. Moreover, the rich chemical tunability of polymer electrolytes is an additional benefit.…”

Conductance-stable liquid metal sheath-core microfibers for stretchy smart fabrics and self-powered sensing

“…Flexible, stretchable, and lightweight conductors are the indispensable components of emerging wearable electronics ( 1 ), soft robotics ( 2 ), deformable supercapacitors/batteries ( 3 ), flexible displays ( 4 ), etc. Among them, stretchable fiber conductors that could be easily knitted into fabrics with high air permeability and unnoticeable size in wearing have attracted increasing interest ( 5 , 6 ).…”