Send this article to a friend: August |
Upcycling technique turns plastic bottles into supercapacitor material Scientists at the University of California, Riverside have come up with a new technique to turn plastic bottles into a material for supercapacitors Supercapacitors hold incredible potential when it comes to energy storage, with an ability to charge and discharge almost instantly being one of their major selling points. Were key components for these next-generation devices to come from sustainable sources that would only add to the appeal, and scientists at the University of California, Riverside (UCR) are offering up this possibility in the form of a nanomaterial made from upcycled plastic waste. The breakthrough comes from a team of engineers led by UCR’s Cengiz Ozkan, who for years has been investigating new nanoscale materials that can help make supercapacitors viable options for energy storage. Previously, Ozkan and her colleagues have made promising advances involving everything from graphene to glass bottles, but their latest discovery centers on one of the largest environmental headaches we face in plastic waste. The team started with pieces of plastic bottles made from polyethylene terephthalate plastics, or PET. These were dissolved in a solvent and turned into microscopic fibers using a technique known as electrospinning, with the fibers then converted into carbon in a furnace. A scanning electron microscope image of the new supercapacitor material made from upcycled plastic bottles The material was then mixed with a binder and conductive agent before being incorporated into a double-layer capacitor in a coin-cell-like shape. Testing of the new electrode material in this configuration showed that it functioned as a perfectly capable component of a supercapacitor.
While supercapacitors charge faster than lithium batteries, they don’t store nearly as much energy. So while they could allow for electric vehicles that charge in minutes rather than hours, or phones or laptops that do the same, there will still be a place for the energy storage architecture widely used today. But the team believes that the approach used here could be adapted to improve the performance of these lithium batteries, too.
The research was published in the journal Energy Storage. Source: University of California, Riverside
newatlas.com |
Send this article to a friend: