Small, Printable, Cheap Battery Tech Developed

For the most part, batteries are pretty boring. Occasionally, however, something interesting comes along, like the Fraunhofer Research Institution for Electronic Nano Systems ENAS' printable battery tech.

The cells developed aren't going to be of much use in a laptop, offering 1.5V a piece. Multiple batteries can be linked in series, though, providing 3V, 4.5V and 6V (as if you couldn't work out those steps yourself).

The cells are made using a silk-screen printing process similar to that used of printing t-shirts. The result is a battery weighing less than a gram and of negligible thickness.

The materials used in the teeny cells - a zinc anode and manganese cathode, to be specific - degrade over time. The batteries are therefore, for now, limited in use to applications where the relatively low power and short lifespan aren't a problem; such as greetings cards.

Of wide application? Probably not. Funky in a geeky way? Definitely.

Link:
Fraunhofer.