Chemists invent flexible batteries made of vitamins
U of T researchers believe it will be cheaper, better for environment than standard batteries
The batteries you buy at the store might soon be bendable, thanks to the invention of a vitamin-driven battery by researchers at the University of Toronto.
Not only could the battery be a disruptive technological force, but researchers also believe it will be cheaper and more environmentally friendly than standard batteries.
“We’ve been looking to nature for inspiration for a variety of new materials for electronic application,” said Dwight Seferos, a U of T associate chemistry professor and the Canada Research Chair in Polymer Nanotechnology.
Seferos is part of a team of U of T chemists that spent the past year and a half creating the battery, as part of the university’s Connaught Global Challenge research program.
The battery’s cathode, the positive electrode through which electrons flow from the anode (negative electrode) to power electronic devices, is made from a vitamin-created plastic.
That plastic is made of flavin, the active part of a vitamin B2 molecule.
The chemists took natural vitamin B2 and applied chemical modifications that rendered it into its plastic form.
The flavin molecules, all stuck together in a long chain, form the material used for the cathode, and contains a voltage of 2.5, considered fairly high.
“Basically, our work is lessening the environmental footprint of these cathode materials.” TYLER SCHON DOCTORAL STUDENT AND PAPER CO-AUTHOR
“Its capacity is fairly comparable to things like lithium cobalt oxide, a standard cathode material which you probably have in your phone or laptop,” said doctoral student Tyler Schon, co-author of the group’s recently published paper about their invention. “Its stability is a little bit lower, but it’s something that we’re working on.”
Most batteries use heavy metals such ascobalt and nickel for the cathode, and generate a lot of toxic byproducts in their processing, Schon said. They require a lot of extraction and mining, high-temperature synthesis and contribute to increased carbon dioxide emissions which disturb the environment.
“Basically, our work is lessening the environmental footprint of these cathode materials,” he said. “They’re obviously pretty harmful to the environment. You can’t throw them out in regular trash, they need to be recycled.”
Unlike most common batteries, the team’s creation comes from a biological source and therefore could be disposed of in the garbage, rather than the recycling bin.
Vitamin B2 is found in a lot of foods such as milk products, leafy vegetables, almonds and eggs, however researchers got it from a manufacturer on an industrial scale generated through genetically-modified fungi.
“We’re hoping that this battery, since it isn’t using expensive metals and stuff like that, will notice cost reduction,” Schon said.
Traditional metal cathodes are the reasons why batteries can sometimes generate excess heat and even catch on fire. The researchers say their plastic-based product could be safer. The prototype is on the scale of a hearing aid battery, both in size and power. The plastic has a translucent green colour and is also fairly flexible. Seferos believes these qualities will lead to disruptive technological developments such as bendable or transparent batteries.
“We don’t view it as a drop-in replacement for, say, the batteries that are in your iPhone,” Seferos said. “We think that these types of products will be really useful in the future as we’re going to see lots more wearable technologies being developed over the next five to 10 years.”
A phone that’s able to bend thanks to its flexible battery could be an example of this.
“There’s no product that exists that is the battery version of that,” he said. “We’re still on the research side of it, but this is just one of the things that you can envision with a plastic of this type.”
The next step is to develop a higher capacity battery from the vitamin B2 material, closer to the size and capacity of a typical AA battery.
“This is just one piece of the puzzle that we’re working on right now. We’re hoping that with future research, we can put a few more pieces into place and maybe develop a product that could be commercially viable,” Schon said.
“We’re hoping that it’s not too far off, but it’s obviously just in the research stage right now.”