Calcium battery can be woven for wearable power
Researchers in China have developed a rechargeable calcium battery that can be woven into fibres to power wearable devices.
The team at the Institute of Fibre Materials and Devices at Fudan University in, Shanghai used calcium and carbon nanotubes for the battery which has a significantly longer lifetime than other calcium batteries.
Calcium–oxygen (Ca–O2) batteries can theoretically deliver high energy capacity by the reduction of oxygen to calcium oxide compounds (CaOx) at low cost in the same way as sodium batteries. This also avoids the safety risks of lithium ion batteries in fabrics that constantly move and so can be vulnerable to short-circuits.
However a rechargeable Ca–O2 battery that operates at room temperature has not been achieved because the CaOx/O2 chemistry typically involves inert discharge products and few electrolytes can accommodate both a highly reductive Ca metal anode and oxygen.
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The team developed a Ca–O2 battery that is rechargeable for 700 cycles at room temperature by using a carefully selected ionic liquid-based electrolyte with a calcium anode and carbon nanotubes for the cathode.
The battery is stable in air and were extruded into flexible fibres that are weaved into textile batteries for next-generation wearable systems.
www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06949-x
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