This scanning
electron microscope image shows bee pollen studied for
potential use as electrodes for
lithium-ion batteries.
Color was added to the original black-and-white image.
(Purdue University
image/ Jialiang Tang)
(February 5, 2016) Pollens,
the bane of allergy sufferers, could represent a boon for battery makers:
Recent research has suggested their potential use as anodes in lithium-ion
batteries.
"Our findings have demonstrated that renewable pollens
could produce carbon architectures for anode applications in energy storage
devices," said Vilas Pol, an associate professor in the School of Chemical
Engineering and the School of Materials Engineering at Purdue University.
Batteries have two electrodes, called an anode and a
cathode. The anodes in most of today's lithium-ion batteries are made of
graphite. Lithium ions are contained in a liquid called an electrolyte, and
these ions are stored in the anode during recharging.
The researchers tested bee pollen- and cattail
pollen-derived carbons as anodes.
"Both are abundantly available," said Pol, who
worked with doctoral student Jialiang Tang. "The bottom line here is we
want to learn something from nature that could be useful in creating better
batteries with renewable feedstock."
Research findings are detailed in a paper that appeared
Friday (Feb. 5) in Nature's Scientific Reports.
Whereas bee pollen is a mixture of different pollen types
collected by honeybees, the cattail pollens all have the same shape.
"I started looking into pollens when my mom told me she
had developed pollen allergy symptoms about two years ago," Tang said.
"I was fascinated by the beauty and diversity of pollen microstructures.
But the idea of using them as battery anodes did not really kick in until I
started working on battery research and learned more about carbonization of
biomass."
journal reference (open access) >>