Researchers at Hopkins University have developed a promising fix: a battery made entirely of plastic. The device was widely believed an impossible a few years ago. But in March 1997, Joseph J. Suter of the Applied Physics Laboratory was scheduled to demonstrate it to the U.S. Air Force, which sponsored the development- a plastic battery capable of powering a two- way radio for an hour.

The all plastic battery has had to overcome several technical hurdles, the most obvious being that plastics are usually electrical insulators. That can be changed, however, by incorporating "dopants" into certain types of polymers. Dopants are substances that either supply extra electrons to conduct charge or, alternatively, take electrons away to create "holes"- places in a molecule that conduct charge by accepting electrons. Compounds called polypyrroles are now in use in commercial cells in combination with metals. But batteries made entirely of polypyrroles have not achieved high enough voltages to be useful.

Recently researches of Johns Hopkins have made multiply rechargeable, thinsandwich cells that produce up to three volts- a useful number. They used as electrodes carefully chosen combinations of plastic identified as fluorophenylthiophenes; a polymer gel containing a boron compound connects the electrodes. The cells can store more electrical energy per gram than lead- acid or nickel- cadmium cells, although not yet as much as lithium batteries. But, Suter, who fashions the plastic cells into useful designs, points out that their lack of metal content makes them suffer and more environmentally friendly than batteries containing lead, cadmium or lithium. Another advantage of the plastic batteries is that they are flexible. That means it should be possible to fit them into awkward spaces.

Plastic batteries have some drawbacks. They need special electronics to charge them optimally. They also have to be hermetically sealed, which was difficult part of the development. Moreover, terrorists could find them useful for building undetectable letter bombs. Batteries produced to date have been deliberately made visible on x- ray machines by incorporating metal grids.

None of these obstacles looks likely to prevent the batteries from being commercialized. Plastic batteries, if they find real- world applications, could be a money- spinner.

1. If this technology is successfully commercialized, would this result in an increase in productivity?
2. If so, how quickly would such an increase occur?
3. What industries will this innovation touch upon?
4. Under what conditions would it be economically commercialized?

1. The closer the link between marketing and R& D, the greater the probability of commercialization. ________
2. The innovator must be willing to take the risk involved in producing a new and untried process, good, or service.________
3. If the firm decides to reduce the duration of a development project by certain percent, the cost of the project will reduce respectively. ______
4. Production of the first hundred machine tools of a particular type may require 50% more hours of labor than production of the second hundred machine tools of this type, even though the number of machine tools produced per month remains about the same. _________
5. The optimal duration of the project is the time interval where the discounted gross profits exceeds the discounted cost by the maximum amount. ______

1. For what reasons is the learning curve used?

1. to estimate how much the cost per unit will go down in the future
2. to represent the extent to which average cost of producing an item falls in response to increases in its cumulative total output
3. all of the above
4. none of the above

1. Labor productivity might be measured

1. as ratio of output to input
2. as output per hour of labor
3. as rate of technological change
4. all of the above
5. none of the above

1. The probability that a firm not using an innovation will adopt it in the next future

1. is higher for innovations requiring small investments
2. is higher for innovations requiring large investments
3. is higher for more profitable innovations
4. is higher for less profitable innovations
5. b, d
6. b, c

4.What is the optimal duration of the project?

1. t1years
2. t2 years
3. t3 years
4. (t1+t2+t3)/ 3 years