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.
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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