Strategic Elements Ltd (ASX:SOR) has made progress towards generating electrical energy from moisture in the air in trials conducted by 100%-owned Australian Advanced Materials and research partner The University of New South Wales (UNSW).
The results showed that over the 14-day testing period, a single 100-square-centimetre Energy Ink cell generated more than 1,400mAh of electrical charge, a 400% increase on the 36-square-centimetre cell pack reported back in January.
Green, sustainable materials
Unlike lithium-based batteries, Energy Ink uses green, sustainable materials that are safe and non-flammable and can be flexed and bent around the human body or structures when printed onto flexible plastic.
The Energy Ink technology is still in early development, and the fundamental upper limit of aspects such as maximum power output, duration and energy density, remains unknown.
Significantly, the research team continues to identify multiple avenues that increase performance.
To date, development has been focused on 36-square-centimetre battery cells relevant to the large electronic skin patch market. But in the latest work, the Energy Ink cell size area was increased to 64 square centimetres and then to 100 square centimetres to test whether Energy Ink cell power output increases as the physical size of the cell increases.
The 100-square-centimetre cell included some, though not all, of the technological breakthroughs made by the team since the beginning of the year.
Challenges for the production of larger Energy Ink cells include printability over a larger area, ink adhesion and electrical contact connections. The team is working on enhancing these aspects.
The UNSW equipment has the capacity to screen print features as small as 100 micrometres and over an area as large as 30,000 square centimetres.
Prototype battery pack
The team is implementing and validating multiple technology breakthroughs into a world-first prototype battery pack with the goal of generating amp hour range of electrical charge solely from moisture in the air.
The 36-square-centimetre cells will be printed onto flexible plastic using green, sustainable, safe materials. Development and testing are near completion.
Based on early results of the upgraded Energy Ink, the company believes the technology profile has exceeded the power output requirements of many existing devices in the US$10 billion electronic skin patch market.
These products are used to provide sports and health information from devices attached to the human body and currently use rigid alkaline batteries or those with lithium materials.
The market for skin patches is forecast to grow to US$30 billion by 2031.
Stealth Technologies Pty Ltd, an automation and robotics company owned by Strategic Elements, is currently building programmable load simulators that will enable automated testing to show how Energy Ink cells perform in real-world applications.
The programmable load simulator will accelerate testing and enable the company to determine the smallest size battery cells or packs required to power the circuits used in different real-world products. A demonstrator will be developed using the automated load simulator.