A group of researchers at the Angstrom Laboratory at Uppsala University in Sweden have discovered that the distinctive cellulose nanostructure of the green Cladophora algae can serve as an effective coating substrate for use in environmentally friendly batteries.
Gustav Nystrom, a doctoral student in nanotechnology and the first author of the research article claims that these algae have a special cellulose structure characterised by a very large surface area. By coating this structure with a thin layer of conducting polymer, a battery can be produced that weighs almost nothing and that has set new charge-time and capacity records for polymer-cellulose-based batteries.
Despite extensive efforts in recent years to develop new cellulose-based coating substrates for battery applications, satisfactory charging performance proved difficult to obtain. However, nobody had tried using algal cellulose.
Researcher Albert Mihranyan and Professor Maria Stromme at the Nanotechnology and Functional Materials Department of Engineering Sciences at the Angstrom Laboratory had been investigating pharmaceutical applications of the cellulose from Cladophora algae for a number of years. This type of cellulose has a unique nanostructure, entirely different from that of terrestrial plants, that has been shown to function well as a thickening agent for pharmaceutical preparations and as a binder in foodstuffs.
The possibility of energy-storage applications was raised in view of its large surface area. The research introduces an entirely new electrode material for energy storage applications, consisting of a nanostructure of algal cellulose coated with a 50 nm layer of polypyrrole.
Batteries based on this material can store up to 600 mA per cm3, with only 6 per cent loss through 100 charging cycles.
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