Red bricks turned to Supercapacitors

 

When we think of futuristic technology, we think of flying cars, hoverboards and sometimes overlook on technology that is possible and scientists and researchers are working on that now, one of such technology is energy storing bricks.


Red bricks are the oldest, cheapest, and the most familiar materials used in construction, and they rarely have another use than in construction. Also, our walls of bricks hold up a larger space which cannot be used in other purposes so to use that space more effectively, we can convert that wall into unit of electrical storage. This research was done from Washington University in St. Louis.

Energy storing bricks for stationary PEDOT supercapacitors | Nature Communications


D’Arcy and his colleagues, including Washington University graduate student Hongmin Wang, showed how to convert red bricks into a type of energy storage device called a supercapacitor. Red fired brick has been found suitable for the same because it is porous, and its red colour comes from presence of iron oxide in it. These properties make it suitable for growing and hosting conductive polymers.


For this experiment, researchers took 65-cent red brick from a store. Then they studied its microstructure and filled the pores in the brick with vapors. Then, bricks were heated into the oven at 160° Celsius. The red pigment in bricks i.e., iron oxide or rust triggers the polymerization reaction and forms the coating of conductive polymer PEDOT (poly (3,4- ethylenedioxythiophene))) which consists of nano-fibers that penetrates the inner porous network of brick. Being trapped, the polymer coating serves as an ion sponge which stores and consumes energy.

A brick supercapacitor powering an LED light 
PHOTO: D'ARCY LABORATORY/WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS

The bricks taken from oven turned to blackish blue hue with conducting nature. Then the team of researchers connected copper leads to two coated bricks. The blocks were separated by a thin plastic sheet of polypropylene. A sulphuric-acid based solution was used as a liquid electrolyte, and the bricks were connected via the copper leads to an AAA (standard size of dry cell battery) battery for about one minute. So, the bricks can power white LED for 11 minutes after charging once. The calculations done by researchers suggests that the wall could store substantial amount of energy.


For providing power for emergency lighting, PEDOT coated bricks are ideal building blocks. Also, if we could take 50 bricks in proximity to the load and attached to solar cell, it can provide power emergency lighting for almost 5 hours. The current set-up can be recharged 10000 times, and it will only lose 10% of original capacitance. Researchers are trying to increase the recharges to 100000 times. Research is going on for making these supercapacitors more economical and useful as it needs more improvements. But this search has been surely proven a great benchmark in storing energy effectively.

Credits & References: Anjali Nawkar (TY Metallurgy- Team Tech Tuesday)

https://source.wustl.edu/2020/08/storing-energy-in-red-bricks/

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-17708-1#Fig4

https://spectrum.ieee.org/turning-red-bricks-into-energy-storage-devices

 

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