Upon the successful development of the conductive textiles and flexible batteries, Prof. Zheng founded EightOSix Technology Company Limited in June 2021 to commercialize the work. They received the PolyU Microfund (HK$120,000) within 6 months after the company establishment and won the Champion Award (HK$300,000) in the Hang Seng x PolyU Sustainable Future Challenge: Textile and Fashion in Mar 2023. The company is currently enrolled in the 3-year incubation programme in HKSTP (Incu-Tech programme).

The truly flexible battery is realized by the team who replaced the metal foils in conventional batteries with their self-developed conductive textiles. Via their patented technology, the Polymer-Assisted Metal Deposition (PAMD), the team deposited various metals (e.g., Cu, Ni, Ag, Au), on almost every textile material effectively, and they use the resultant fabrics as the substrates of cathode and anode of their battery.

This kind of textile-electrodes are light in weight, flexible, durable, and have large specific surface areas. Importantly, the textile-based batteries obtained excellent stability (>80% capacity @500 charge/discharge cycles), mechanical flexibility and high energy density (>450 Wh/L); functioned well under repeated bending (100% capacity @1000 folding cycles, bending radius ~1mm), and they are proofed to be penetration and impact safe. Based on the technologies, the team had silver and gold medals at the 43rd and 47th International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva, respectively. Therefore, their textile batteries are highly suitable to power portable and wearable electronics for a wide range of purposes, including the healthcare monitoring, entertainment, the Internet of Things, and human-interface interactions.

EightOSix Technology is in the midst of a wearable technology revolution. The wearable technology market is expected to register a CAGR of 14.45% over the forecast period from 2021-2027. There is an emerging demand in flexible electronics gadgets and wearable electronics in the market nowadays, such as Galaxy Flip by Samsung, exoskeleton by Rewalk, the Smart shirt or sportswear by Hexoskin or Nadi etc. Currently, these products are limited in the way that design and the flexibility due to rigid lithium batteries. Our battery provides a solution to these limitations. Our battery allows for greater design flexibility, improved flexibility overall, and requires less space while maintaining the same energy capacity.

Moreover, after the outbreak of COVID 19, there are shortage and great demand in medical staff in many countries. Wearable technology incentivizes behavior that reduces hospital visits and readmissions due to poorly managed personal health—75% of 1,000 users agree that wearables help them keep track of their health.

Recently, EightOSix Technology have been focusing on 3 major areas of batteries integration into portable electronics. As there is a huge potential for wearable devices in enhancing safety in extreme condition, they developed prototypes including thermal control garment and lighting suit. They are also targeting at improving the wellness of human being, developing advanced healthcare wearables such as health monitoring garment and smart skin. Last but not least, concerning the accelerated development of smart cities, EightOSix Technology also aim at applying the conductive fabrics and flexible batteries on truly flexible display and smart shoes.

Although there are also some other companies such as Panasonic and Prologium working on the flexible/bendable batteries, EightOSix Technology differentiates themselves by being the first company using metal-coated fabrics as the electrode material in Hong Kong. With the unique attributes of textile-based battery developed by EightOSix Technology, which is the first and only truly-flexible Li batteries commercialized in Hong Kong, they will be one of the best options for powering up all kinds of wearable electronics.