Chemists Talk Stretchy Supercapacitors and Wearable Electronics at Philly Convention

Don’t expect me to even begin to understand the workings of ions and protons or the ins and outs of the Period Table of Elements. But when we’re on the subject of wearable technology, then you can grab my attention—and that’s exactly what the members of the American Chemical Society have done, thanks to a presentation at their 252^nd National Meeting and Exposition, which is taking place in our backyard here in Philadelphia this week.

One of the sessions on the schedule will cover research being presented on stretchy supercapacitors and how they will power the next generation of wearable technology.

According to research conducted by Dr. Xiaodong Chen and his team out of the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, the future of this tech could include things like soft robots that wash our dishes, or smart t-shirts that can charge our smartphones. But all of that depends on the development of stretchy power sources. And that’s what they set out to try and develop. Their result: a stretchy micro-supercapacitor using ribbons of graphene.