New self-charging graphene-oxide ink battery is under development

Australian Advanced Materials has announced it is developing a graphene-oxide-based ink battery that is able to self-charge within minutes.

The cells will be created with a printable ink and designed to generate electricity from humidity in the air or skin surface to self-charge without any manual charging or wired power required. It was said the batteries will be ideally suited for use in Internet of Things (IoT) devices.

Australian Advanced Materials’ research and development of the technology is being undertaken through a collaboration with the University of New South Wales and the CSIRO.

The battery ink will be developed using the company’s Nanocube Memory Ink technology and advanced graphene oxide material.

This ink battery is said to have various advantages over lithium batteries, including the ability to self-charge within minutes compared to being manually charged or plugged into power. By comparison, battery ink cells are also flexible, non-flammable, extremely thin and light, and considered environmentally friendly.

Company representatives said early stage results of the development program have been extremely promising.

Battery ink development at the University of NSW in the next 12 weeks will focus on materials engineering and optimization of the ink formulation, achieving scale up to a large batch size of battery ink (at least 1 liter), and the development of a successful prototype connecting multiple battery cells to produce at least 3.7 Volts.

From the automated robotic security vehicle we are building with US giant Honeywell, the ongoing commercialization of the Nanocube Memory Ink, this new development in battery ink and other commercial activities on the horizon, Strategic Elements is generating significant momentum, Charles Murphy, managing director of pooled development fund Strategic Elements which owns Australian Advanced Materials, said.

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Posted: Oct 29,2020 by Roni Peleg