Battery built using conductive plastic

Polymer based battery using electrically conductive plastic

We recent­ly received a query whether LINQSTAT elec­tri­cal­ly con­duc­tive plas­tic will con­duct elec­tric­i­ty through thick­ness? Will this elec­tri­cal­ly con­duc­tive plas­tic be suit­able for the man­u­fac­ture of a poly­mer based bat­tery? The rea­son was for a new bat­tery design, and the design­er need­ed to pass elec­tric­i­ty from one met­al object to anoth­er — but the two pieces could­n’t touch directly.

It was thought that LINQSTAT Vol­ume Con­duc­tive Film be used between the two pieces of met­al to trans­fer the charge. LINQSTAT takes a nor­mal­ly non-con­duc­tive plas­tic (poly­eth­yl­ene) and uses con­duc­tive fillers in the right size, com­bi­na­tion and quan­ti­ty to make it con­duc­tive. Since the mate­r­i­al is car­bon-filled, we believed it was pos­si­ble and this was an appli­ca­tion per­fect­ly suit­ed for the LINQSTAT.

Why LINQSTAT electrically conductive plastic is perfect for a polymer based battery

LINQSTAT is part of an emerg­ing class of con­duc­tive plas­tics called rad­i­cal poly­mers. These plas­tics are made in such a way that they con­duct elec­tric­i­ty not only across the sur­face, but also in the z‑direction — essen­tial­ly right through the film. At low load­ing lev­els, these plas­tics are not con­duc­tive at all — not even anti­sta­t­ic since there is no con­nec­tions of the con­duc­tive chains with­in the poly­mer. Once the load­ing reach­es a cer­tain amount, the plas­tics become elec­tri­cal­ly con­duc­tive. This process is also very appeal­ing because the mate­ri­als and process used to get the con­duc­tiv­i­ty is quite low cost com­pared to more expen­sive alternatives.

When decid­ing on the thick­ness, we decid­ed that the 4‑mil LINQSTAT VCF‑4 Series was the best thick­ness to use. The rea­son for this is because it allows the right bal­ance of thick­ness and conductivity.

After send­ing a few meters for test­ing, it was con­firmed that the news was great. The worked flaw­less­ly to gath­er and trans­fer a charge from one bat­tery to another.

CAPLINQ is a spe­cial­ty plas­tics sup­pli­er offer­ing a range of con­duc­tive mate­ri­als includ­ing our broad range of elec­tri­cal­ly con­duc­tive plas­tics and anti­sta­t­ic tapes and films. If you have any ques­tions, please don’t hes­i­tate to con­tact us to find out how we can help you with your poly­mer based bat­tery design.

About Chris Perabo

Chris is an energetic and enthusiastic engineer and entrepreneur. He is always interested in taking highly technical subjects and distilling these to their essence so that even the layman can understand. He loves to get into the technical details of an issue and then understand how it can be useful for specific customers and applications. Chris is currently the Director of Business Development at CAPLINQ.

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