A bottle battery filled with sunlight? Now how could that possibly be? Scientists at Chalmers University in Sweden have been beavering away at the idea. Moreover, they appear to have resolved a number of problems with their bottles that left other researchers stymied.
Sounds Intriguing – How Would a Bottle Battery Work?
The general idea is you put a bottle in sunlight and capture the energy. We’ve all felt a bottled beverage warming this way. However, scientists at Chalmers University in Sweden have taken this a step further by using the compound norbornadiene inside a glass container.
Norbornadiene is a metal-binding liquid, whose complexes are useful for homogeneous catalysis. Don’t worry about that, our elevator does not stop on that floor either. The point is when sunlight strikes the liquid in a bottle battery, it rearranges its carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen atoms into the energy-storing isomer, quadricyclane. And quadricyclane in turn has known uses in solar energy conversion.
How Quadricyclane Releases Its Energy As Heat
First, the quadricyclane in the bottle battery grabs hold of the energy. Scientists estimate this to be 250 watt-hours of energy per kilogram over an extended period, even after it cools. Then. when it passes this through a cobalt based catalyst it releases the energy as heat.
The team at Chalmers University in Sweden believe they have a breakthrough for transporting solar energy and releasing it later. Because they say this could make a valuable contribution to meeting global energy needs.
News broke of their innovation about a year ago. Since then, the Chalmers University scientists have been tweaking their model so it sustains during 125 cycles without apparent degradation. This has been a critical time they say. “We have made many crucial advances recently. And today we have an emissions-free energy system which works all year around,” adds team member Moth-Poulsen.
Solar energy in a bottle battery sounds an intriguing innovation. Right now, we only appear to have laboratory scale success. However the idea of capturing it for heating later is an idea we are unable to let go of. Because in theory we could even make steam!
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Preview Image: Bottles in Sunlight
