A team of engineers and materials scientists from the U.S. has found that holes of a certain size and shape placed in certain locations can turn a slightly flexible and stretchy battery pouch into one that can be stretched significantly or folded 180 degrees. In their paper published in Matter, the group describes how they came up with the design and explain how it makes a battery that is barely stretchy into one that can be folded.
Over the past couple of decades, as electronics have become smaller and more resilient, textile makers have been looking for ways to add them and their batteries to clothes. Advances in small devices and displays have led to the development of clothes that can display electronic messages or allow them to change colors and patterns; the tricky part has been in powering them. Some small devices that can be added to clothes consume so little energy that they can be powered by a wearer’s movement. Unfortunately, most others still need a battery.
The difficulties of adding batteries to clothes include size, weight and stiffness. There have also been fears of batteries setting clothes on fire. In this new effort, the research team has developed a battery that is both bendable and has a built-in cooling mechanism to prevent overheating.
The battery made by the team is essentially the same as other battery pouches, except for one major difference—it has holes cut in it. Pouch batteries are typically just a little bit flexible. To make them more flexible, other researchers have tried cutting square or round holes in them in various places.
In this new effort, the researchers studied how putting holes in such a material increases stretchiness, and worked to find a design that would provide the most stretchiness without sacrificing battery capacity.
The resulting battery has longer and shorter rectangular holes of the right size and placement. Testing showed it was capable of holding a charge when folded 180 degrees, and could be stretched by as much as 10% of its length. The researchers also found that it held up without fail after 100 folds/unfolds, was twice as breathable as cotton, and that the holes served to dissipate heat.
More information:
Lin Xu et al, Stretchable, breathable, wearable batteries using a holey design, Matter (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.matt.2025.101959
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Unique hole type and placement makes a wearable battery more bendable and breathable (2025, January 28)
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