Scientists have created an electrolyte for a new generation of batteries from ordinary wood

A joint research team from Brown and Maryland Universities was looking for alternatives to modern electrolytes and decided to use cellulose extracted from wood as a base for solid electrolyte.

So the resulting electrolyte, just one sheet of paper thick, showed its flexibility, as well as an excellent ability to absorb energy during the charging or discharging process. It is about this unique scientific work that will be discussed in the material.

Modern electrolytes and their disadvantages

One of the significant disadvantages of modern electrolytes is the fact that they contain volatile substances that can lead to fire during a short circuit in the device, and also lead to the formation dendrites. As a result, there is a significant decrease in the efficiency of modern batteries.

In order to eliminate these disadvantages, it was proposed to use solid electrolytes, which are quite possible to produce from non-combustible materials. This refinement allows you to avoid the appearance of dendrites, as well as to increase the safety of the product.

So one of the possible modifications is to replace the anode (now made of graphite and copper) with a solid electrolyte. This modification should significantly extend the battery life, as well as increase the capacity and operating temperature range.

Most of the solid electrolytes so far have been made from ceramics, which are highly efficient. transmission of ions, but at the same time poorly holds the load during charging and discharging the battery due to the high fragility.

A new type of solid electrolyte and its prospects

So in the next scientific work, scientists decided to use cellulose nanofibers found in wood as a "base" for their new electrolyte for solid anodes.

Scientists combined wood polymer pipes with copper to obtain a solid ionic conductor, and, as further experiments showed, conductivity the resulting material turned out to be quite comparable to the conductivity of ceramics from 10 to 100 times better than other existing polymer guides.

Scientists explained this effect as a result of the introduction of copper between the polymer chains of cellulose, resulting in so-called "ion trunks", and they enable charged lithium particles to move with record efficiency.

Scientists have shared the results of the work done on the pages of the journal Nature.

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