Iowa State University has released details of a new battery that will decompose upon exposure to light, heat or water. Such “transient electronics” are in their infancy, but the applications could be large, from limited environmental impact to military devices that self-destruct, with echoes of Mission Impossible.

Reza Montazami, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering has been working on transient technology for years, and the latest development is a lithium-ion battery capable of delivering 2.5 volts and dissolving or dissipating in 30 minutes when dropped in water.

Commercial use may be some time off, with the battery powering a desktop calculator for about 15 minutes, and the battery does not completely disappear. The battery contains nanoparticles that do not degrade, but they do disperse as the battery’s casing breaks the electrodes apart. Larger batteries with higher capacities could provide more power, but would also take longer to self-destruct. The Montazami and his colleagues suggest applications requiring higher power levels could be connected to several smaller batteries.

There are, however, some particular low energy uses that the battery could perform even today, such as environmental monitoring.

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