A cheap, environmentally friendly, long-lasting battery with a huge capacity but is thinner than a piece of paper? Doesn’t sound too bad, does it?

That’s exactly what scientists in the University of Maryland have created, and it could have convenient uses such as storing power created by solar plants.

The winning combination of factors in this battery sadly won’t mean a longer life for your laptop or smartphone - sodium batteries do not handle the usage of most personal electronics well.

The researchers took their inspiration from flexible nature of wood, as traditional batteries don’t handle the physical stress of being recharged very well.

Wrinkles in the wood cope well with expanding and contracting as power moves in and out which means that they are potentially longer lasting than the lithium-ion batteries we are used to.

"Wood fibers that make up a tree once held mineral-rich water", explains Liangbing Hu, one of the lead scientists on the project, "and so are ideal for storing liquid electrolytes [used in batteries]"

So far they have been recharged 400 times, which more cycles planned.