Mechanically Addressed Electrochemical Storage: A Segmented Tape Architecture for Localized Ion Transport

Instead of transporting ions to storage, we transport storage to the reaction zone. This inversion of the conventional transport paradigm stems from a simple, foundational question: Are ions inherently bound to move only by diffusion? Rather than requiring ions to traverse increasingly long and heterogeneous pathways, the proposed architecture mechanically addresses discrete storage segments to a localized electrochemical reaction zone. This spatial decoupling of storage and reaction introduces a new design space in which total storage capacity can, in principle, be scaled through the extent of the storage medium while local electrochemical transport remains governed primarily by the segment-scale geometry. In this architecture, only a thin segment of the tape (coating thickness δ ∼ 40 µm) participates in the electrochemical reaction at any given moment, while the remainder ofthe storage medium remains electrically isolated and physically separated from thestationary reaction zone. This separation of scales—storage length Lstorage ≫ δ— allows the total storage capacity to scale independently of the local diffusion time. We develop a quantitative framework relating coating thickness, segment geometry,dwell time, mechanical indexing time, power, and energy capacity. The architecture offers potential advantages in modularity, maintainability, and localization of transport losses, while identifying mechanical indexing and system-level energy density as key engineering challenges.