Printed Electronics – the Missing Fragments

Many other areas of printed and potentially printed electronics are being relatively neglected. Take batteries. Most potential applications of printed electronics call for batteries, preferably of low cost and flexible. The technical requirements vary greatly between the different applications, yet we are stuck with a handful of suppliers who either offer carbon zinc with its limited life, power storage and rate of delivery or lithium technologies with their problems of cost and environmental credentials. (Some would add that lithium is also a fire hazard given what has happened with large lithium batteries in electric vehicles and laptops but the tiny amount of material in a printed lithium battery means that fire or explosion is the least of its problems.) The important question is, “Who is working on the intermediate printed battery technology demanded by the market place?” With large battery technology we have nickel metal hydride for example. For printed electronics we have nothing.