Scientists develop stretchable metal-air battery

SEOUL, March 26 (Yonhap) -- A couple of scientists from South Korea's state-run science laboratory have developed a stretchable metal-air battery, officials said Monday, a breakthrough that may be used in wearable technologies such as bendable electronic devices. Lee Joong-kee and Guicheng Liu of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology developed the soft and highly elastic cable‐shaped liquid metal–air battery that can be operated at room temperature, according to the institute. A metal–air cell -- an electrochemical cell that uses an anode made from pure metal and ambient air -- has so far been cited as a next-generation secondary battery. However, the metal-air cells developed up until now only used metal, which is not stretchable enough to be applied for wearable devices. The researchers from KIST developed the liquid metal–air battery operating at the room temperature of 25 Celsius with effective reaction of gallium and indium to overcome such limits. "In the liquid metal electrode, indium is used not only to inhibit the corrosion of gallium in the alkaline electrolyte but also to maintain the liquid state of the anode at room temperature," the researchers said in a research paper. KIST said the battery shows high elasticity, excellent shape recovery from stretched states and a discharge performance retention of 98.87 percent. "This battery technology is forecast to show a new solution for Energy Storage Systems and industrial wearables," Lee said. Their latest findings were published in the international science journal Advance Energy Materials, KIST said. khj@yna.co.kr (END)