Is the Next Big Thing Batteries Made from Algae?

Posted 11/30/2009 at 2:16pm | by Bart Salisbury

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Who’d have thought that simple pond scum may be the future of battery technology? Demand for portable power sources is increasing--especially for something longer lasting in a small package. Being environmentally friendly wouldn’t hurt. A group of scientists from the Angstrom Laboratory, Uppsala University, Sweden, are reporting a breakthrough in the development of a “redox polymer-based electrodes and batteries with high-capacities and very good cycling performances.”  And yes, they’re made from algae--the environmentally repugnant Cladophora, to be precise.

Well, not really algae, but the cellulose from this algae. For the scientifically inclined, the authors write: “We have also shown that it is possible to coat highly porous Cladophora cellulose substrates with homogeneous, several nanometer thick layer of PPy [polypyrrole] to obtain a high-surface area cellulose composite electrode material and that this material exhibits an exceptionally high ion-exchange capacity.”

In layman’s terms: PPy in a homogeneous and uninterrupted nano-thin coating (about 1/50,000th the thickness of a human hair) on Cladophora cellulose can both carry a charge and be molded into paper sheets. All it needs to work is “composite paper separated by an ordinary filter paper soaked with sodium chloride serving as the electrolyte.” Bingo-you got a battery that can hold a charge, shows little degradation over a hundred charging cycles, and can be recharged in as little as 11 seconds.

While algae, or more precisely PPy-cellulose composite materials, hold promise, the scientists don’t expect they’ll be replacing Li-ion batteries anytime soon. Rather, they’ll best be suited for things Li-ion doesn’t do well, such as clothing or wrapping paper that blinks “Happy Birthday.”

Image Credit: American Chemical Society