Tree gum can permanently overeat the lifespan of supercapacitors

A waste eraser produced by the trees found in India could be the key to unlocking a new generation of more efficient and more environmentally friendly supercapacitors, according to the researchers.

Scientists of universities in Scotland, South Korea and India are at the origin of development, which exploits the unique properties of the tree gum otherwise useless to prevent supercapacitors from degrading on tens of thousands of charging cycles.

The team’s finding could help reduce the environmental impact of supercapacitors, energy storage technology which carries less global power than conventional batteries but loads and discharges much faster.

Supercondners are currently used in a wide range of electronic devices, in electrical networks and electric vehicles. However, their long -term performance can be affected by their use of acidic electrolytes, which can cause unwanted secondary reactions with their metal electrodes, reducing their ability to maintain their full load over time.

The replacement and elimination of supercapacitors at the end of their lives contribute to the growing global problem of electronic waste, which can have harmful impacts on the environment.

In an article published in the journal Energy storage materialsThe researchers show how they combined Gum Kondagogu, a polysaccharide produced by the bark of the Cochlospermum Gossypium tree, with sodium alginate to make a spongelike biopolymer that they called “KS”.

They found that the addition of KS to the acidic electrolyte of a conventional supercapacity contributed to creating a protective layer on its carbon electrodes. The KS layer helped prevent the physical degradation of electrodes while allowing the process of transporting the ions which allows the supercapacitor to load and unload.

In laboratory tests, they showed that their improved electrolyte considerably strengthened the performance of the supercapacitor, helping him to maintain 93% of his full energy capacity after 30,000 cycles. During the same period, the capacity of an otherwise identical supercapacitor tested by the team fell at only 58%.

Dr. Jun Young Cheong, from James Watt School of Engineering from the University of Glasgow, is one of the corresponding authors of the article. He said: “Treet gums have a wide range of uses in industry, in applications such as pharmaceuticals, food or cosmetics.

“However, the gums that we have used in this study do not have a lot of practical uses, and are in fact a bit of a headache for the Indian government. With this research, we have found a way to make something really impacting from this gum, creating a biodegradable and recyclable life which allows in a remarkable performance and and prolong the useful lifespan.

“In the laboratory, we have shown excellent performance at more than 30,000 cycles. If we were a cycle per day, the supercapacitor could theoretically last more than 80 years without losing significant performance, which could mean that supercapacitors could be used in much longer devices without being replaced.”

Research is based on Dr Cheong’s current research on the use of biowaste in batteries, which has also demonstrated the effectiveness of the use of water-soluble gum binders in graphite anodes in lithium-ion batteries.

Researchers from the University of Add (Prof. Tae Gwang Yun), Chung-Ang University (Prof. Byungil Hwang) and the University of Myhongji in South Korea contributed to research and co-wrote the newspaper, as well as colleagues from the University of Amrita (Prof. Vinod VT Padil) in India.