Rolled, crumpled or neatly folded into an origami swan, the battery will operate.Jenax of South Korea has developed a new flexible battery, which is as thin as paper.
The J.Flex can be folded, twisted and bent while retaining its charge. In tests, the battery was folded more than 200,000 times without losing performance. It is also waterproof.
Jenax formed the lithium-ion battery using a metal fibre technology, meaning that the battery can – apparently – be manipulated around 1 million times during its lifetime. Additionally, the flexibility means that the battery can be larger; in the strap of a watch, for instance. Jenax CEO E.J Shin estimated that a smartwatch using the J.Flex would have about six times the capacity of existing models.
Several configurations exist, ranging from a 2.3mm-thick, 80mm² cell with a 1,000mAh capacity, to a 0.2m-wide, 3m-long cell (0.5mm-thick) with a 17,500mAh capacity.
