Graphene-enhanced, thin, flexible printed battery for electronic wearable and IoT devices - (FLEXIBAT)

最近可穿戴和物联网技术的蓬勃发展，如智能传感器，健身手表，尚未充分发挥其潜力，因为一个组件限制了进一步的发展：电池源。因此，设备通常都有体积庞大的电池，必须经常插入电源，或者使用备用电池、快速充电或智能软件等变通方案。最先进的柔性电池，如锂离子电池、真空沉积锂电池或锌电池，各有优缺点。锂离子电池生产成本低，但相对较厚，不具有高功率，适用于一些可穿戴或智能包装应用。锂电池可以非常薄，但更昂贵，并且具有比锂离子电池更少的能量容量。锌电池非常便宜，比锂离子电池具有更高的能量容量，但仅适用于低功率。此外，锂离子电池、锂电池和锌电池使用碳集电器和电极，虽然有助于电池的轻量化，但限制了它们的导电性。用金属代替碳部件会增加导电性（从而增加功率），但关键是会增加电池内部化学反应引起的腐蚀。这限制了电池的功率和寿命。**FLEXIBAT** 项目将开发一种新型的一次性电池，用于电子可穿戴设备和物联网设备，该电池基于锌碳化学和金属集电器。开发的重点是使用石墨烯为金属集电器和电极提供特殊的腐蚀保护层，这将使电池更薄，更灵活，能量更高。我们最终将开发出全电池系统的技术演示原型，并在受控环境中进行测试。为了成功实现这一目标，项目联盟拥有制造电池的相关专业知识，包括电池制造，材料开发，石墨烯涂层和柔性集成电路开发和制造。

The recent boom in wearable and Internet of Things technology, such as smart sensors, fitness watches, has not yet reached its full potential due to one component restricting further development: the battery source. As a result, devices often have bulky batteries, must be plugged in frequently or use workarounds such as spare batteries, fast charging or smart software.State-of-the-art flexible batteries, such as lithium-ion, vacuum-deposited lithium, or zinc batteries each have their advantages and disadvantages. Lithium-ion batteries are cheap to produce, but relatively thick and do not have high power suitable for some wearable or smart packaging applications. Lithium batteries can be very thin, but are more expensive, and have even less energy capacity than lithium-ion. Zinc batteries are very cheap, have a higher energy capacity than lithium-ion, but are only suitable for low power. These constraints all limit the flexibility and form-factor (shape) of batteries for devices.Furthermore, lithium-ion, lithium and zinc batteries utilise carbon collectors and electrodes which, although contributing to the batteries' light weight, limits their electrical conductivity. Replacing the carbon parts with metal would increase the conductivity (and hence power) but crucially increases corrosion that results from the chemical reactions within the battery. This limits the battery power and life time.The **FLEXIBAT** project will develop a novel single-use battery for electronic wearables and Internet of Things devices, based on zinc-carbon chemistry and metal collectors. The focus of the development is on a special corrosion protective layer for the metal collectors and electrodes using graphene, which will enable a thinner, more flexible and a higher energy battery. We will ultimately develop a technology demonstrator prototype of the full battery system and test it in a controlled environment.To successfully achieve this, the project consortium features the relevant expertise for making the battery, including battery manufacture, materials development, graphene coating, and flexible integrated circuit development and manufacture.