Shellfish is one of the world’s most delicious foods to eat. However, not only can it be consumed but it can also be used to function as a battery!
The University of Maryland’s Center for Materials Innovation has discovered a process that would be able to produce a sustainable battery. The most important part of a battery is an electrolyte, which is a medium that can keep the movement of ions from positive to negative terminals. Scientists have found a material called chitosan that can function great as an electrolyte. Chitosan can be commonly found in the exoskeletons of crustaceans, which is a group species that include crabs, lobsters, shrimps, and many more. Because crustaceans are highly eaten around the globe, there is a huge supply of chitosan and can help make use of food waste!
Combined with other acids and solutions, chitosan is turned into a gel membrane. This material decomposes around 5 months, which is quicker than regular batteries that take years, and even decades.
After the chitosan breaks down, the rest of the battery is left. In most traditional batteries, lithium is used heavily. However, it takes a very long time for lithium to decompose after use. For the battery to be mostly biodegradable, the scientists replaced lithium with zinc. Zinc is a much cheaper and safer alternative that can also decompose much quicker. Zinc is also much more abundant and even more effective that regular batteries. According to Science Daily, it has an energy efficiency of about 100% after 1000 cycles.
The combination of both chitosan and zinc make the sustainable batteries non-flammable. Although these batteries had a fair share of challenges, the results seemed very promising, according to Graham Newton, professor at University of Nottingham. This eco-friendly product is great for our environment and is helping us push forward towards sustainability development, which is saving our earth one step at a time!
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