Smarter clothing may soon be in fashion thanks to a stretchable fabric-based polymer lithium-ion battery designed by University of Houston researchers.
The interactive sensors that are increasingly being embedded in clothing and other wearables for health monitoring and other applications require stable power supplies. The flexible, stretchable batteries engineered for such use are based on conductive silver fabric as a platform and current collector. In contrast to the rigid nature of conventional batteries, these fabric-imbued devices can mechanically deform and stretch while providing the electrical conduction pathways required for a functioning electrode.
Research reported in Extreme Mechanics Letters confirms that this lithium-ion battery structure can stretch up to 15% strain without a significant increase in its internal impedance. The technology is envisioned to open new avenues for providing stable performance and safer properties for wearable devices and implantable biosensors.
