Korean scientists working on bendable battery technology

While most manufacturers have used the term “lighter and thinner” to death, some have opted to include the word “bend”. We reported last year of Samsung’s idea to delve into the area of flexible phones, and following in its footsteps comes researchers at the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology in South Korea who have developed malleable polymer electrolytes that would make the bendable battery a reality.

The polymers that they developed behave more like liquefied electrolytes and under high temperatures would create stable and flexible power cells. Even though a battery like this does not exist yet, the polymer electrolytes would allow much faster battery manufacturing. This is achieved by blasting the batteries with ultraviolet rays for about 30 seconds, says the country’s Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. This gives the idea behind a flexible phone a huge boost, as at CES 2013 the word flexible was mentioned more than a few times with 4K and OLED TV’s taking over the show much in the way 3D did before.

A flexible phone would be a welcome sight. Just ask those that have had the unfortunate accident of sitting on their phone. We always hurt the ones we love. But now with a flexy-phone. Is it the future yet?