FSU Researchers Develop Battery Component That Uses Compound From Plants
Feb 26, 2021 03:49PM ● By Bill Wellock
A Florida State University research team has developed a
way to use a material found in plants to help create safer batteries.
Using the
organic polymer lignin—a compound in the cell walls of plants that makes them
rigid—the team was able to create battery electrolytes. Their research was published as the cover article
in the journal Macromolecular
Rapid Communica.
“The main
battle in battery science is in new materials,” said Hoyong Chung, an assistant
professor of chemical and biomedical engineering in the FAMU-FSU College of
Engineering and the study’s corresponding author. “Depending on what kind of
material we use, we can improve the capacity of the battery and the safety of
the battery substantially.”
To create their
new type of solid electrolyte, the team combined lignin with the synthetic
polymer polyethylene glycol.
Electrolytes
are a battery part that separate the negative and positive terminals of a
battery. They conduct ions, which match the flow of electrons moving from a
negative to positive terminal and through whatever the battery is meant to
power.
Electrolytes
can be either liquid or solid, and each type has its strengths and weaknesses.
Liquid electrolytes are good conductors of ions, but solid electrolytes are
typically safer, stronger and can be used at higher temperatures than liquid
versions.
Polyethylene
glycol is a popular candidate for solid electrolytes because of its
electrochemical stability, but it doesn’t conduct well at room temperature,
which limits the abilities of batteries using that material to power something
or to rapidly charge.
That’s where
lignin comes in.
Lignin’s
chemical structure contains high concentrations of derivatives from a compound
called benzene, which makes it a strong material. By using lignin as an
electrolyte component, the battery keeps the strength and safety that comes
with a typical solid electrolyte but gains the ability to function well at room
temperature.
Along with
increasing the range of temperatures at which a solid electrolyte battery is
feasible, using lignin is a way to make batteries more sustainable.
Lignin is cheap and abundant. About 50
million tons are produced each year globally,
and most of that is a waste product from the paper industry. Unlike other
biomass materials, it’s not a human food, so it couldn’t be otherwise used to
feed people.
“This is a way
to improve battery performance and to do so in a sustainable way,” Chung said.
“Batteries will be even more important in the future, so improving their technology
is crucial.”
Daniel Hallinan Jr., FAMU-FSU College of Engineering
associate professor and co-corresponding author; former graduate student
Hailing Liu; and former graduate assistant Logan Mulderrig contributed to this
work. This research was supported by the National Science Foundation and FSU’s
Energy and Materials Hiring initiative.