Mohali institute produces graphene from peanut shells to store electricity
MOHALI: Are you still throwing away peanut shells? Come to think of it that these waste shells contain something that is capable of replacing the batteries and supercapacitors as the next-generation energystorage devices .
A team led by Dr Ramendra Sundar Dey at the Institute of Nano Science and Technology (INST), Mohali, has produced ‘graphene’ from peanut shells, which can store electricity to power smart electronic and medical devices.
Dr Dey said, “The research, though completed in November last year, was refined till the first quarter of this year. We will apply for a patent for the process within a month, which we hope to get in another six months.”
An invention relating to a product or process that is capable of industrial application can be patented by filing an application to the Indian Patent Office.
He said graphene is a form of carbon consisting of planar sheets which are one-atom thick. “It is now evolving as an alternative route to conventional energy-storage devices like batteries and supercapacitors.”
He added, “This work is not about waste agricultural biomass recycling. It is about making high-performance energy-storage devices. The method is biocompatible and reproducible at the industrial scale in a highly cost-effective and ecofriendly manner. It can revolutionise high-energy storage devices.”
De Dey said, “This green energy production is free of any hazardous chemical or high-temperature furnace. An age-old technique of mechanical exfoliation is used for developing few-layer graphene from this peanut shells rich in carbon.”
He said while graphene holds the promise of future engineering and technology, the current production cost of single-layer and few-layer graphene for commercial applications is very high. Besides, the process requires use of sophisticated instruments and toxic reagents or agents, which come in the way of graphene commercialisation.
He said peanuts are largely used for their ability to fix the nitrogen content of soil and hence cultivated both as a food and for replenishing the soil. “So obviously it is one of the most abundant waste biomass all over the world.”
According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations, India produces 6.6 million tonnes of peanuts per year, which is the second highest production in the world after China.
Dr Dey said they aimed at converting this huge turnover of waste shells currently finding way into landfills to fewlayer graphene, which is best among similar contemporary biomass-derived storage devices.
“This green supercapacitor production requires minimal monitoring and has no scientific limitations. It may inspire new insights into its broad application range, especially in fabricating low-cost, portable energy-storage systems that can power smart electronic and medical devices,” he added.