SBIR Phase I: High-performance flexible batteries for electronic wearables

该项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力在于，拟议的柔性电池技术解决了可穿戴/柔性电子产品（例如智能手表、服装、眼镜和医疗贴片）现有电池设计的主要问题（例如机械故障、低容量）。Xerion Advanced Battery Corporation（XABC）电池设计有望缩小电子设备及其配套电池之间的技术差距，并进一步加速可穿戴/柔性电子行业的发展，预计该行业将以53.7%的复合年增长率增长。这种电池技术的发展将为电池设计的各种基本原则提供重要的科学见解和实践指导，例如应力处理，形状因子适应性，组装，集成以及能量和功率优化。此外，XABC？新的电池制造技术，利用高通量电镀工艺生产电池级材料和电极，有可能推动学术界和工业界其他储能倡议（例如高能量，低成本汽车电池）的创新。这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目描述了一种创新的柔性电池设计，以满足对可穿戴/柔性电子产品日益增长的需求。 所提出的柔性电池由通过在集电器上直接电镀高质量、高能量电池材料而实现的电极制成。在大多数现有的柔性电池中，电池材料通过聚合物粘合剂粘合，导致弯曲过程中接触松动，从而损失电池材料。相比之下，电镀材料与集电器化学结合，这显著增强了电极在反复弯曲和变形期间的完整性。这种强键合还使得电极中的电子快速传输成为可能，从而提高电池功率。在这里，XABC将通过其专利电镀技术开发高性能柔性电池。研究将侧重于调查柔性电池设计的各个方面，包括电镀优化，集流体选择，电池组装和包装。XABC将展示为柔性电子产品制造具有各种形状因子的完全封装柔性电池原型的能力，并进行详细的电化学和机械表征。所提出的柔性电池原型有望在数千次弯曲和变形循环后显示出高能量、高功率和优异的容量保持率。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is that the proposed flexible battery technology solves the major problems (e.g. mechanical failure, low capacity) of the existing battery designs for wearable/flexible electronics (e.g. smart watches, apparel, eye wear, and medical patches). Xerion Advanced Battery Corporation (XABC)?s battery design can potentially close the current technological gap between electronic devices and their supporting batteries and further accelerate the wearable/flexible electronics sector, which is expected to grow at 53.7% compounded annual growth rate. The development of this battery technology will provide important scientific insights and practical guidance towards various fundamental principles of battery designs such as stress handling, form factor adaptability, assembly, integration, and energy and power optimization. Furthermore, XABC?s novel battery fabrication technique, which utilizes a high throughput electroplating process to produce battery grade materials and electrodes, has the potential to drive innovations in other energy storage initiatives (e.g. high-energy, low-cost batteries for automotive) in both academia and industry. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project describes an innovative flexible battery design to meet the growing demand for wearable/flexible electronics. The proposed flexible batteries are made of electrodes realized via directly electroplating high-quality, high-energy battery materials on current collectors. In most existing flexible batteries, battery materials are bonded by polymer binders, resulting in loose contacts during bending and thus loss of battery materials. In contrast, the electroplated materials are chemically bonded to the current collector, which significantly enhances the electrode integrity during repeated bending and deformation. Such strong bonding also enables fast electron transport in the electrode and thus boosts the battery power. Here, XABC will develop high-performance flexible batteries via its patented electroplating technique. Research will focus on investigating various aspects of the flexible battery design including electroplating optimization, current collector selection, battery assembly, and packaging. XABC will demonstrate capability of making fully packaged flexible battery prototypes with various form factors for flexible electronics and perform detailed electrochemical and mechanical characterization. The proposed flexible battery prototype is expected to show high energy, high power, and excellent capacity retention after thousands of bending and deformation cycles.