Strategic Elements has sailed over a critical hurdle with the company’s printable, self-charging battery being used to power a Bluetooth device. The company’s revolutionary technology uses atmospheric moisture to continually energise the battery, with the recent trial utilising its cutting-edge technology to power up a Cypress Semiconductor sensor kit that included a control board, temperature and humidity sensors and a Bluetooth communication module.
The company’s printable battery provided power to the unit for the full five-hour test period, with the sensors wirelessly sending temperature and humidity readings to a nearby laptop every seven seconds.
Strategic’s trial was designed to show potential applications for the hardware, with the possibility of utilising a wireless sensor-packing supercapacitor to monitor “smart” buildings and regulate energy management systems – a developing multi-billion-dollar market linked to domestic and industrial decarbonisation and reduced energy use.
Interestingly, this is the first time the batteries have been used to power up a commercial supercapacitor, with the success of the pairing now opening the door for the use of the technology in a raft of developing applications requiring a portable, high-performing and sustainable energy source.
The company’s successful trial with supercapacitor technology provides a key “proof of concept” for the self-charging battery, with the printable hardware now set to enter its next phase of development.
Strategic’s graphene-rich ink currently builds a battery pack by printing a number of miniature cells. The cells are about 0.25 square centimetres, however the company’s development partner, the University of New South Wales, is working on screen-printing technology that will enable miniaturisation of the cells. This will allow more cells to be packaged into a smaller space resulting in a corresponding increase in the power output of the unit.
Based on this premise the company’s next goal will be to print a prototype battery pack that will produce a full milliamp of power that can then be used to power a multitude of electronic devices.
The company plans to print and trial the milliamp battery during the third quarter of 2021.
With Strategic’s cutting-edge self-charging batteries having passed their supercapacitor trials with flying colours, the way is now clear to demonstrate integration of the hardware in a variety of technologies.
Potential uses of the technology only appear to be limited by the output of the battery pack and the imagination of hardware designers.
