The paint contains layers, each representing a necessary component of a conventional battery -- current collectors made in part from purified single-wall carbon nanotubes, a cathode, an anode, and a polymer separator -- as described in a report published today in Nature authored by Rice graduate student Neelam Singh and her team. Spraying the painted battery is a multilayer process, but when you're done, you have a covered surface that stores energy and discharges it when needed -- that is, a battery.
This technology would be perfect for Philip K. Dick's battery-powered comic books from his 1965 novel The Zap Gun, which refers to a battery within the back cover of a magazine.
I can't resist pointing out that this would be a perfect way to store the power from Larry Niven's sprayable solar power cells - black power - from his 1995 story The Woman in Del Rey Crater.
Mercedes Benz Solar Paint
'It turns sunlight into electricity, just like any solar power converter - you spray it on.' - Larry Niven, 1995.
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!)
is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for
the Invention Category that interests
you, the Glossary, the Invention
Timeline, or see what's New.
Nano-Chainmail 2D Mechanically Interlocked Polymer
'Nemourlon armor of reasonable weight resists penetration by most fragments and any bullet that is not both reasonably heavy and fairly high-velocity.'
Humans Love Helping Other Species
'At the ringside opposite them a table had been removed to make room for a large transparent plastic capsule on wheels.'