Posted by Okachinepa on 04/12/2025 @
Courtesy of SynEvol
Credit:Energy Storage Materials
Researchers suggest that a waste gum from trees in India may hold the potential to usher in a new era of higher-performing, more environmentally friendly supercapacitors.
Researchers from institutions in Scotland, South Korea, and India have contributed to this advancement, utilizing the distinctive qualities of otherwise ineffective tree gum to protect supercapacitors from deterioration over numerous charging cycles.
The team's discovery may assist in minimizing the environmental effects of supercapacitors, a type of energy storage technology that holds less total power than traditional batteries but charges and discharges significantly faster.
Supercapacitors are now employed in various electronic devices, power grids, and electric cars. Nonetheless, the use of acidic electrolytes may impact their long-term performance, potentially leading to undesirable side reactions with metal electrodes, which diminishes their capacity to retain a full charge as time passes.
The replacement and disposal of supercapacitors when they reach the end of their lifespan adds to the increasing global issue of electronic waste, which can negatively affect the environment.
In a study featured in the journal Energy Storage Materials, the scientists illustrate their method of blending gum kondagogu, a polysaccharide sourced from the bark of the Cochlospermum Gossypium tree, with sodium alginate to create a spongy biopolymer named "KS."
They discovered that incorporating KS into the acidic electrolyte of a standard supercapacitor assisted in forming a protective layer on its carbon electrodes. The KS layer assisted in avoiding physical deterioration of the electrodes while still facilitating the ion transport process that allows the supercapacitor to charge and discharge.
In laboratory experiments, they demonstrated that their enhanced electrolyte greatly increased the supercapacitor's efficiency, allowing it to retain 93% of its total energy capacity after 30,000 cycles. During the same period, the capability of a similar supercapacitor evaluated by the researchers decreased to only 58%.
Dr. Jun Young Cheong from the University of Glasgow's James Watt School of Engineering is one of the corresponding authors of the paper. He stated, "Tree gums have numerous applications in industry, including uses in pharmaceuticals, food, and cosmetics."
"Nonetheless, the gums we've utilized in this research possess few practical applications and are somewhat problematic for the Indian government to manage for disposal." Through this research, we've discovered a method to produce something truly significant from this gum, leading to a biodegradable, recyclable biopolymer that offers impressive performance and could greatly prolong the lifespan of supercapacitors.
"In the laboratory, we have demonstrated outstanding performance across 30,000 cycles." Should we conduct one cycle daily, the supercapacitor might, in theory, endure over 80 years without notable performance decline, suggesting that supercapacitors could power devices for a significantly extended period without needing replacement.
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