Origami: Art with paper becoming a battery near you

For those you who are unfamiliar with this type of art, origami is the art of folding a flat piece of paper into a sculpture such as a bird, a butterfly or a flower, without “guide” marks on the paper and without any kind of adhesive to hold it together.

A battery is a different story. Although the term “battery” was fist coined by Benjamin Franklin, in reference to a series of charged glass plates, the first “wet cell” battery (as we know it) was invented by Alessandro Volta, in 1800. This “Voltic Pile” was the first invention capable of producing a steady and sustained current through a chemical reaction.

Fast forward 215 years into the future and say hello to Seokheun “Sean” Choi. Mr. Choi, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Binghamton University, has worked in collaboration with Hankeun Lee, to successfully create a folding paper battery that creates electricity with… Anyone? Anyone?

Dirty water… Bacteria laden dirty water to be more specific. No, you cannot charge your iPhone with it. Well, not yet. As of right now, this is being looked at as a power source for biosensors and research in remote areas of the world. At least, that’s the next goal. To help achieve this the National Science Foundation has provided the team with a new three-year grant of nearly $300,000. I have a feeling we are looking at a massive jump in the technology of power storage, if Mr. Choi can get it perfected.

How does it work? What does it cost? Who’s using it? As usual, there are a crazy amount of chemical and physics details we could hash out for hours; so, in light of this, we will keep it simple.

A basic battery has very few parts. It contains a cathode, an anode, and the electrolyte. The electrolyte holds a chemical reaction within the battery casing, moving electrons from one place to another to produce an electric current. Half of the cell contains electrolyte and an anode (the negative end). The other half contains electrolyte and a cathode (the positive end). Electrons gather at the negative end of a battery. When a wire is connected from the positive end to the negative end (or installed in a device) the electrons move through the cell and out of the battery from the anode. Finally, they then move through the wire or device and into the cathode. It’s simple enough, right?

The paper battery uses an inexpensive air-breathing cathode created with nickel, this is sprayed onto one side of ordinary office paper. The anode is screen printed with carbon paints, which creates spaces for the dirty water to be absorbed into. The trick here is the simple fact that every living thing on our planet produces electricity and its own magnetic field. Both the largest animal in the world and even the smallest plant life creates a “spark”. Until now, there just hasn’t been a way to actually harvest and use this energy.

The most incredible part of the whole endeavor? The total cost of this potentially game-changing device is five cents US. Crazy? I don’t think so. How crazy would it be to unfold a piece of paper, soak it in a puddle of otherwise “undesirable” water, only to refold it and plug your iPhone into it for a quick charge?

TechAnon

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