Wood fibers naturally accumulate water rich in mineral salts. Why not use them as batteries?
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves himIn the future we may accumulate electrical energy with the wood fiber batteries. The idea came to Liangbing Hu, Teng Li along with a group of researchers who just published a scientific study in the journal Nano Letters.
The principle on which the wooden battery is the ability of this material to capture and store water that is very rich in minerals, just like electrolytes do in traditional batteries. This is why they decided to use wood fibers to accumulate sodium ions, in order to create a less polluting battery that does not contain lithium.
The result is a very small battery (a thousand times thinner than a sheet of paper), long-lasting, efficient and environmentally friendly.
In laboratory experiments the wood fiber battery passed without problems 400 charge and discharge cycles electricity, which puts it on top of the most promising sodium ion technologies.
Given also the relatively low costs of such a battery, the idea of these scientists is a candidate to be an excellent solution for large and high power energy storage. Such as those used to accumulate excess energy produced by wind and photovoltaic parks.
Peppe Croce
