Are organic radical batteries the route to sustainable energy, many people in the know ask. Traditional batteries have significant carbon footprints in terms of materials and manufacturing, and we have not resolved recycling them yet. In fact, as Alae Lakraychi and Alexandru Vlad wrote in Electrochimie Journal these current battery transition metals are unsustainable. However, there have been few commercial alternatives for sale.
Progress with Organic Radical Batteries Has Been Slow
This potentially exciting alternative has been largely dormant since 2005 when the idea surfaced. Organic radical batteries use polymers to create electrical energy instead of metals. These should be more powerful than lithium batteries but why are they not on the consumer horizon.
Possibly that’s because they use redox reactions to generate electrochemical energy, and potential investors are unfamiliar with this. Moreover, there is a great deal of money sunk into lithium batteries. Perhaps consumers are too comfortable with what we already have, as is the case with gasoline automobiles?
Dr Jodie L. Lutkenhaus Creative Battery Scientist with a Dream
Meanwhile Texas Uni Researchers are Making Quiet Progress
Researchers at Texas A&M University under guidance of Dr Jodie L. Lutkenhaus are making progress with 100% polymer batteries. Appearing in Nature Materials as quoted in Science Daily she says these will recycle faster than traditional batteries.
Her team has confirmed organic radical polymers appear ideal in terms of electrochemical activity too. “These polymers are very promising for batteries because they can charge and discharge way faster than any common battery,” she explains. ”This rapid charging could dramatically change the way electric vehicles (and phones) are used today.” We understand the chemical structures are also ‘very stable and reactive”. That’s because they have a single electron in the radical group. Moreover, this unpaired electron allows rapid charge transfer in these polymers during redox reactions.
However, Dr Lutkenhaus has only observed this phenomenon under laboratory conditions. She hence needs more time to research organic radical batteries in order to understand them better
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Preview Image: Hybrid Organic Radical Battery
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