Curvaceous Batteries

New Scientist reports that a new generation of curved batteries will allow electronic devices to be built in shapes that till now have been impossible. Mobile phones, for example, have had to be designed around their batteries, which are normally shaped like a fat rectangle or a cylinder. These shapes have been forced on designers because rechargeable lithium-ion batteries need strong metal cases to keep the stack of electrodes inside them pressed firmly together, says Ben Borves of Philips Research in Eindhoven, The Netherlands.

Philips’s solution is to punch holes through the electrode stack and fill them with a polymer. When thermally set, the polymer behaves like a rivet, holding the stack together. This should allow any shape of battery stack to be produced, says Borves, including curved and even spherical ones.