Wafer-Thin
Ars Technica reports that researchers at MIT and Rensselaer PolyTech have developed batteries made out of carbon nanotubes that are paper-thin and biodegradable. They’re also flexible, like a sheet of paper, and can be made in any shape since they are formed by applying a nanotube-saturated liquid to a substrate.
They see the first uses for such batteries in implantable medical devices, but if this technology is scalable, there would be any number of consumer electronics applications where a small, flexible, custom-shaped battery would be an enormously desirable change from present battery technology.
Nano-tubes are incredibly useful, aren’t they? I just wonder if the day will come when the discover that they cause cancer. ;)
Actually, there is already quite a bit of concern that the process for making carbon nanotubes uses carcinogenic substances
But, on the plus side, the nanotubes themselves are actually being used to CURE cancer
This news absolutely electrified my imagination. The applications are huge and the possibility to incorporate them into every day electricity sapping devices, including the medical applications as you mention. I’m looking forward to the idea of adding them as skins on cars and in house paint and all sorts of non-petroleum based industrial applications. And just think about poor old Lindsay Lohan….her tracking anklet can be earrings or a subdermal implant!