A flexible battery that can be folded

You may soon be able to fold your mobile handset in half or keep it rolled up in your pocket, as scientists have now invented a battery that can be folded.

Scientists from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology have developed a flexible battery that can be bent and twisted - giving the possibility that phones of the future could be flexible and hold more capacity, the Daily Mail reported.

The batteries that power devices have not increased much in capacity through the years, and they are also inflexible in shape – meaning so many phones keep the same basic rectangle shape.

The team, led by Professor Keon Jae Lee has developed what they call the ‘high-performance flexible all-solid-state battery’, which is stable enough to power our phones while still remaining stable.

This opens up the possibility that phones - and other devices such as tablets or e-book readers - could be folded in half or rolled up for easy storage in your pocket.

“The technological advance of thin and light flexible display has encouraged the development of flexible batteries with a high power density and thermal stability,” the KAIST team said.

“Although rechargeable lithium-ion batteries have been regarded as a strong candidate for a high-performance flexible energy source, compliant electrodes for bendable LIBs are restricted to only a few materials, such as organic materials or micro-structured inorganic materials mixed with polymer binders,” the researchers were quoted as saying by the paper.

However, until now, the performance of LIBs has not been sufficient either, thereby difficult to apply to flexible consumer electronics including rollable displays.

The team has developed a high performance flexible LIB structured with high density inorganic thin films.