Organic batteries – Building in sustainability
Sustainable energy storage is in great demand. Researchers at Uppsala University have therefore developed an all-organic proton battery that can be charged in a matter of seconds. The battery can be charged and discharged over 500 times without any significant loss of capacity.
See the film: Organic batteries – Building in sustainability
Due to the fact that great many of the batteries manufactured today have a major environmental impact, not least due to the mining of the metals used in them, the point of departure for their research has been to develop a battery built from elements commonly found in nature and that can be used to create organic battery materials. Their proton battery is a large stride towards being able to manufacture sustainable organic batteries in future.
Such batteries open up new possibilities when it comes to areas of applications but – perhaps most importantly – they are sustainable because no mining is required to produce the materials, which is a major problem with conventional batteries. Not to mention all of the carbon dioxide emitted during production , says Christian Christian Strietzel, PhD student at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering.
Annica Hulth
Facts
The transition to a fossil-free energy system, in Sweden and globally, is one of the great challenges of our time. For a successful transition to a sustainable energy system, there must be comprehensive research on, first, technology and, second, the behaviour and circumstances of electricity users. At Uppsala University, a lot of research is going on in this area.