POWER PAPER: ENERGY STORAGE BY THE SHEET

            Could paper be the future of power in electronic gadgetry? Just as plastics unleashed a revolution in the manufacture of everyday materials, a new power source composed of cellulose, carbon nanotubes and a dash of liquid salts could revolutionize the energy behind gadgets from iPhones to pacemakers.

            "We have a paper battery, supercapacitor and hybrid device that could be used in a variety of energy storage applications", says biological and chemical engineer Robert Linhardt of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (R.P.I), who helped lead the team that made the discovery. "These devices are lightweight and flexible and are primarily composed of cellulose paper - an environmentally friendly and biocompatible material."

            In addition to all the flexibility gained from creating this thin dry sheet of "nanocomposite paper", the paper battery can also be cut up or stacked and works at a wide range of temperatures, from -100 degrees Fahrenheit to 350 degrees F (without bursting into flame). And, depending on how the paper is made, it can function as a battery, a supercapacitor (an unusually efficient energy storage device that can deliver a quick burst of power) or both. "The nanotubes on which the cellulose is cast contact the paper at the molecular level with an enormous surface area, allowing the device to efficiently store and release power", Linhardt says.

            The power paper could also absorb salty bodily fluids, such as sweat or blood, to function as a supercapacitor. "The use of these electrolytes based on bodily fluids suggests the possibility of the device being useful as a dry body implant," Linhardt notes. "We are very interested in the possibility of disposable paper defibrillators as a potential medical application."

            If the power sheets can be rolled off a printing press, as scientists hope, the future of energy storage may be in paper. "We are realistic enough to recognize that the actual scale up of a process can be fraught with unanticipated difficulties", Linhardt says. But "we do not see any insurmountable challenges."

            Adapted from the article by David Biello

The word "actual" in the last paragraph means