News Reader.info

Just 24 hours after demonstrating the flexibility of its rechargeable battery ink by fabricating it into a bendable textile cloth, Strategic Elements has achieved another milestone in its

quest to produce a type of ink that can be “printed” onto a smooth surface to create circuitry that can be recharged simply from the moisture in the air. The ASX-listed pooled development

fund says it has managed to scale down its self-charging battery ink cells by a factor of four whilst simultaneously generating 14 volts from a pack of 20 scaled-down ink cells solely by

harvesting moisture from the air. Company technocrats said they have downsized the battery ink cells from the previous benchmark of 100 square millimetres in area to just 25 square

millimetres, achieving a four-times reduction in surface coverage. The company has put together a 20-cell battery ink pack which has the same surface area of an earlier prototype which had

just five cells. Importantly, the new, small, 20-cell pack produced 14 volts whilst the older 5-cell battery ink pack generated only four volts. One of the keys to Strategic’s technology is

that it contains hundreds of thousands of nanoscale sheets of a specialised graphene oxide material. Interestingly, Strategic likened its battery ink development to that of computer chips

where performance was improved even as the size of the memory cells was reduced through scaling. The battery ink’s ability to harvest energy from the humidity in the air, or even from the

surface of human skin represents a quantum technology leap forward in the electronic circuitry space and opens up a raft of potential applications that otherwise struggle to get power such

as devices that can be attached to the body, especially for clinical and health monitoring. The technology is being developed in collaboration with the CSIRO and the University of NSW, with

the joint effort attracting over A$20m in research funding. Strategic appears to be getting closer to discovering the holy grail of the electronic circuitry space and with its flexibility

now demonstrated, the prototype scaled down and power output scaled up, it is now well placed to up the ante in its quest to fully prove up its remarkable technology. The next challenge

according to management will be a hybrid electric generator that can harvest energy from little more than the humidity in the air. Now that might be a game-changer. _Is your ASX-listed

company doing something interesting? Contact:_ [email protected]_ GET THE LATEST NEWS FROM THEWEST.COM.AU IN YOUR INBOX. Sign up for our emails