Tiny Battery

With the recent invention of 3-D printers, the sky is the limit for the types of intricate and complex objects it can create. On June 18th, it was announced that a team of researchers at Harvard and the University of Illinois were able to synthesize a lithium-ion battery smaller than a grain of sand and less than the width of a human hair.

Researchers were able to achieve this astounding accomplishment through the delicate layering of a network of interlaced electrodes. After a 3-D design is complete on the computer, the printer uses specially made liquid inks containing electrodes designed to immediately harden once they hit the air. The device can serve a wide range of uses due to its size.

Prior to this battery, the existence of incredibly small battery-powered objects was few and far between. This is because devices designed to be incredibly small required batteries that were just as big as they were to give subsequent energy or they were given incredibly small batteries lacking any substantial power. The 3-D printer uses the inks and a detailed design from a computer program to be able to create the microbatteries.