Paper Battery Construction, Working, Advantages, Disadvantages

This Paper battery tutorial covers Paper battery basics including construction, working and applications. It mentions Paper battery advantages and Paper battery disadvantages.

Paper battery has become popular due to its flexible and ultra thin energy storage structure. It can be utilized as high energy battery. It can also function as super capacitor. It is widely used in electronics, medical, automobiles and aircraft industries for various applications.

Paper battery Construction | Paper battery working operation

The device paper battery is formed by combining carbon nanotubes with sheet of cellulose based paper. This device combines two discrete components as mentioned.
➨Paper Battery = Carbon Nanotubes + Paper (Cellulose)

Cellulose is complex organic substance. This is found in paper as well as pulp. This substance is not digestible by the human beings.

A Carbon NanoTubes is very tiny cylinder formed from single sheet of carbon atoms rolled into single tiny cylinder. They are stronger than steel. They conduct better compare to any semiconductors. They can be used as sngle-walled or multi-walled.

As shown in the figure-1, paper battery is made of following:
• carbon nanotubes (CNT) acts as cathode
• Lithium metal (Li⁺) acts as anode
• Electrolytes including bio-electrolytes such as sweat, blood and urine.
• cellulose based paper acts as separator

Following steps are followed during the construction of paper battery:
• First, common paper of desired size is used.
• Special ink with desired substrate is spread over this paper using conformal coating.
• Once the solvent is dried out, high contact surface area is formed between nanotubes and paper using strong capillary force.
• Now thin layer of lithium film is laminated on exposed part of cellulose surface. This will complete construction of the paper battery.
• Once the battery is made, anode and cathode terminals are connected with aluminium current collectors in order to provide interfacing with external loads.
• Paper battery is different in construction to standard battery, but working wise it is similar to the electro-chemical battery.

Properties of cellulose include bio-degradable, high tensile strength, bio-compatible, low shear strength, easy to reuse and recycle, non-toxic, excellent absorption capacity etc.

Properties of carbon nanotubes include very light and flexible, good electrical conductivity, low mass density, high packing density, high tensile strength, low resistance etc.

Paper battery Advantages

Following are the advantages of Paper Battery:
• The properties of cellulose and carbon nanotunes as outlined above are the great benefits in paper battery design and development.
• It is bio-compatible and hence they can easily adopted by our immune system.
• They can be re-used and re-cycled by using techniques of existing paper recycling.
• The paper batteries are rechargeable using all electrolytes.
• It is durable and operates in wide temperature range.
• There is no leakage problem as no leaky fluids are used in its design.
• It does not overheat even under extreme conditions due to low resistance characteristics.
• Flexible and light in weight.
• Paper battery with desired shapes and sizes can be manufactured.
• Output voltage is customizable due to the fact that CNT (carbon nanotubes) concentration can be varied and stacking/slicing can be changed.

Paper battery Disadvantages

Following are the disadvantages of Paper Battery:
• This type of batteries can be torn easily as they have low shear strength.
• The methods (e.g. arc discharge, CVD, ablation, electrolysis) used in carbon nanotubes manufacturing are expensive and less efficient.
• They are harmful to human being when inhaled.

Paper battery Applications

Following are the applications of Paper Battery:
• It can be used in electronics for charging various devices e.g. laptop, cameras, mobile phones, calculators etc.
• It can be used in wireless devices e.g. mouse, keyboard, speakers, bluetooth headsets etc.
• It can be used in medical applications such as artificial tissues, cosmetics, glucose meters, sugar meters etc.
• It can be used in aircrafts and automobiles as hybrid car batteries, guided missiles etc.

This Paper battery tutorial is useful for beginners as well as advanced enthusiasts.

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