{"id":10234,"date":"2021-03-22T14:40:56","date_gmt":"2021-03-22T14:40:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.innovationnewsnetwork.com\/?p=10234"},"modified":"2021-03-22T14:40:56","modified_gmt":"2021-03-22T14:40:56","slug":"recyclable-vegetable-starch-battery-could-power-future-devices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.innovationnewsnetwork.com\/recyclable-vegetable-starch-battery-could-power-future-devices\/10234\/","title":{"rendered":"Recyclable vegetable starch battery could power future devices"},"content":{"rendered":"
A team of engineers led by the University of Glasgow has developed a new type of 3D-printed recyclable battery with hopes to produce more environmentally friendly lithium-ion batteries, capable of storing and providing power more efficiently.<\/p>\n
The design and fabrication of the battery is outlined in a paper published in the Journal of Power Sources<\/em>.<\/p>\n Lithium-ion batteries are lightweight, compact, and have the capacity to withstand numerous cycles of charging and discharging. As a result, they are well suited for use in all sorts of devices, such as laptops, mobile phones, smart watches, and electric vehicles<\/a>.<\/p>\n However, lithium-ion batteries are currently limited by the amount of energy that can be stored in them, as well as by the thickness of their electrodes. Thicker electrodes are more likely to crack, and therefore not work. As well as this, they restrict the diffusion of lithium ions across the electrode.<\/p>\n The team hopes its new recyclable battery will strike a better balance between the size and the surface area of electrodes by introducing tiny nanoscale holes into their design. In order to do this, the team are employing a 3D printing technique so they can carefully monitor the size and placement of all the holes in the electrodes.<\/p>\n The material they created to go in the 3D printer<\/a> combines polylactic acid, lithium-iron phosphate and carbon nanotubes. The polylactic acid is a biodegradable material processed from the starch of corn, sugar cane, and sugar beet, meaning much of the battery is recyclable.<\/p>\n