Techno Babble

“Ink” made of carbon nanotubes, silver nanowires and paper are the ingredients necessary to create a battery according to research led by Yi Cui, assistant professor of materials science and engineering, and his team at Stanford University .

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2009/december7/nanotubes-ink-paper-120709.html

Yi Cui had previously created nanomaterial energy storage devices using plastics. His new research shows that a paper battery is more durable because the ink adheres more strongly to paper (answering the question, “Paper or plastic?”). What’s more, you can crumple or fold the paper battery, or even soak it in acidic or basic solutions, and the performance does not degrade. “We just haven’t tested what happens when you burn it,” he said.

They have also experimented with using other materials such as textiles.

I thought paper batteries had been around for some time, here’s an article on the BBC new site from Aug 2007.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6945732.stm#graphic

Perhaps, in the future, batteries could be created with 2D or 3D printers, and if you could also also print electrical circuitry the possibilites become endless.

So that’s the technology, how would you use it ?