Power and Energy Commons^™

Thread Based Battery For Low Power E-Textile Applications, Pranav Laxmanan, Girish Chitnis, Rahim Rahimi, Babak Ziaie

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Textile electronic systems, or e-textiles, are on the rise but their utility is limited by its power demand. Potential applications include point-of-care diagnostic systems that would enable medical monitoring at the site of care. A small, inexpensive, and easy to use battery would enhance the capabilities of e-textile. Here we propose a thread based battery that attempts to satisfy these requirements. The thread based battery uses chemistry similar to an alkaline battery. The fabrication process involves patterning of current collector (silver epoxy or carbon ink) followed by zinc electroplating and manganese dioxide deposition. Thread present in between these two electrodes …