Advancement of technology has shown us many wonderful gadgets. One of the gadget which is crucial for people these days is Mobile phone. It has been imagined already in the science fiction movies and future vision of research companies a transparent mobile device. At Stanford Research, the researchers have managed to invent a crucial component for the vision of building transparent phones.
The vision of holding a transparent mobile phone is very near to reality now. though many companies have already got transparent devices like digital clock, digital frame etc still the inability to get the transparent battery proved to be an hindrance in the puzzle.
Stanford researchers have been working over to invent a transparent lithium-ion battery which is as cost comparative to traditional batteries but is also highly flexible thus providing a great potential for applications in consumer electronics.
The basic idea used in the transparent batteries was to construct the battery components too small to be seen by naked eye as these components cannot be made transparent.
As per the researchers Yang and Cui at Stanford university "If something is smaller than 50 microns, your eyes will feel like it is transparent as the maximum resolving power of the human eye is somewhere between 50 to 100 microns.”
They used a transparent rubbery compound known as polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and poured into silicon molds to create grid-patterned trenches. A metal film was evaporated over the trenches, creating a conductive layer over which a liquid slurry solution containing minuscule was dropped.
The research devised a mesh-like framework for the battery electrodes where each line in the grid being as minute as approximately 35 microns wide. Since the light passes through the transparent gaps between gridlines the entire meshwork area appears transparent.
As of now the researchers aim to make this battery more powerful. One functional battery is created by placing an electrolyte layer between two electrodes. Battery can be made more powerful by adding multiple layers. Researchers are confident energy density of this transparent battery can be increased wit advancement in materials science.
Yang on being asked the need of transparent batteries replied, he would talk to Steve jobs about it.. as he wants a transparent iPhone.
More info at the Stanford News release. Catch a video about the transparent batteries.
Who would want a transparent phone? I would lose it in the first five minutes.
ha ha…. but you can use it to impress your girlfriends 🙂