Strategic Elements Ltd (ASX:SOR) subsidiary Australian Advanced Materials (AAM) and the University of New South Wales have signed an agreement for a A$1.6 million project to develop a next-generation power source that can directly generate electricity from moisture in the air for wearable electronics.
The Australian Research Council has awarded funding to the Powering Next Generation Wearable Electronics Project, under a Linkage Grant, a federal program that supports long-term strategic alliances.
Wearable electronic material
The end product is expected to be a wearable electronic material, significant advances in self-powered, environmentally friendly devices and the commercialisation of Australian-invented technology.
The project will be led by Professor Dewei Chu and includes a team of interdisciplinary researchers in functional materials, computational materials science and solution-processed nanodevices.
The team will have access to state-of-the-art facilities at UNSW, including nanoionics materials fabrication, electronic printing and characterisation technology.
The funding includes A$486,640 in cash from the Australian Research Council and A$554,178 in services and equipment in kind from The University of New South Wales over three years.
AAM will provide A$350,000 in kind and $220,000 in cash and retain ownership of the underlying Energy InkTM IP.
Energy from airborne water molecules
The team hypothesises that printed graphene-oxide-based cells that generate energy from airborne water molecules could potentially directly power a device, complement a battery by extending device life or provide energy for battery storage.
This comes with the global imperative for more innovative, renewable energy creation and power sources expected to grow significantly.
Demonstration Development Stealth Technologies Pty Ltd, an automation and robotics company, owned by Strategic Elements, is building programmable load simulators that will enable automated testing to simulate how Energy InkTM cells perform in real-world applications.
Automation will allow the company to run multiple tests in parallel without human intervention. Programming will allow circuits to simulate devices with different power usage patterns. This will accelerate testing and optimise the size of cells or packs required to power the circuits used in various real-world products.
Data bank for future discussions
Importantly, the extensive data captured from the programmable load simulators will also form a data bank for future discussions with OEM development partners across various devices.
This initial demonstration will simulate how Energy InkTM cells perform to the requirements of a commercial wearable skin patch and is on track to be completed by the end of 2022.
The electronic skin patch market is worth an estimated US$10 billion. These products provide sports, health and other information from devices attached to the human body and currently use rigid alkaline batteries or those with lithium materials. The market for skin patches is forecast to grow to US$27 billion by 2033.
This development success has opened up a potential R&D pathway for larger-scale Energy Ink systems, either through packs with multiple connected cells or larger cell sizes.
Over the 14-day testing period, a pack previously successfully generated more than 2.4 Ah (2400 mAh) of charge.
Investigations into whether Energy InkTM cells generate more electrical charge as they increase in size have also been successful, with a single 100 square centimetre cell generating more than 1.4 Ah (1,400 mAh) of electrical charge.
AAM has access to equipment that can print features as large as 3 square metres, and the company is designing a program of work that will significantly increase cell size under development.
Pooled development fund
The Australian Federal Government has registered Strategic Elements as a pooled development fund with a mandate to back Australian innovation.
Under this arrangement, SOR majority funds projects and engages a major strategic investor/partner able to assist commercialisation.
The company is backing projects across robotics, artificial intelligence, printable technologies (battery, storage) and strategic technology metals.
Investors in SOR potentially pay no tax on capital gains from selling their SOR shares as the company operates under the pooled development program.