Plastic wonders
a battery has been developed by researchers at John Hopkins University that is made entirely of plastic. This is being considered a significant breakthrough. An all-plastic battery was considered an impossibility a few years ago. Plastic is an electrical insulator and previous attempts at producing all-plastic batteries were marred by several technical hurdles ( Scientific American , Vol 276, No 4).
The heavy weight of batteries seriously limits the performance of every application they are put to. The greatest advantage of the all-plastic batteries would be their light weight. Another advantage is that they are flexible. This makes it possible to fit them into awkward places. They are also safer and ecologically less harmful than batteries containing lead, cadmium or lithium, says the inventor, Joseph J Suter of the Applied Physics Laboratory. The project was sponsored by the us Air Force to develop a plastic battery capable of powering a two-way radio for an hour. Suter is negotiating with manufacturers to roll-up the technology to make aa -size cells. A panel of plastic cells is slated to be tested on a satellite in 1998.
The greatest obstacle in producing the plastic batteries