Highly flexible printed alkaline batteries based on mesh embedded electrodes

Abstract

Folding, conformable electronic devices cannot be realized until flexible batteries that match device form-factor and power requirements are developed. Existing flexible batteries exhibit a severe limitation due to internal short circuits during flexing. In the present work, we demonstrate a printed alkaline battery fabricated with a polyacrylic acid (PAA)-based polymer gel electrolyte (PGE). The electroactive materials were embedded into a mesh structure providing highly flexible electrodes. The flexible alkaline battery showed an open circuit potential of 1.52 V and discharge capacity of 5.6 mAh/cm2 when discharged at 0.5 mA. The discharge capacity of the printed battery was characterized in bend conditions ranging from 3.81 cm to 0.95 cm bending radii without any decrease in performance compared with the planar state. Two batteries connected in series and bent to a radius of 0.3 cm were able to power a green light-emitting diode (LED).