Left image: candle
soot being deposited on stainless steel. Right image: high resolution
microscopy
image of carbon
nanoparticles from candle soot; the inset shows the candle soot deposited on a
substrate. (The
images were featured in the original research article by Kakunuri and Sharma in
Electrochimica
Acta, October 2015).
The carbon in candle soot could be a better option for
lithium batteries
(October 7, 2015) For
centuries, they have been used to light the way, tell the time and banish bad
smells. Now researchers say candles could be the key to cheaper, more efficient
electric car batteries. But how would this work, and why has no one thought of
it before?
“Generally we overlook the simpler things; candle soot is
not new, but we’re only now looking at it as a potential source of carbon,”
said Dr. Chandra Shekhar Sharma, Assistant Professor in the Department of
Chemical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology in Hyderabad, India.
In fact, as a carbon source, candle soot may be more effective than what’s
currently available for making powerful batteries.
Dr. Sharma and his colleague Dr. Manohar Kakunuri came
across a study published a few years ago in Science that showed candle soot has
superhydrophobic surface properties. “If you put a water droplet on candle
soot, it rolls off. However, from the material’s perspective, candle soot
carbon has electric potential. So why not use it as an electrode?” asked Dr.
Sharma. “We looked into it and saw it also shows some exceptional
electrochemical properties, so we decided to test it further.”
In a new study published in Electrochimica Acta, Dr. Sharma
and Dr Kakunuri found that because of the shape and configuration of the tiny
carbon nanoparticles, the carbon in candle soot is suitable for use in powerful
lithium ion batteries. What’s more, because candle soot can be produced quickly
and easily, it is a scalable approach to making batteries.