Organic batteries use carbon-based molecules for their active components. Thus, they are a move away from traditional metals including lithium, sodium, cobalt, and nickel. The rationale for this, is that carbon is available everywhere we go in nature. Using organic batteries for our sustainable future, therefore makes our battery material supply chain more secure.
Sources of Sustainable Carbon for Organic Batteries
Carbon is a fundamental building block of life, and we find it in every living thing. It is also present in our atmosphere, our ocean, and the crust on the surface of our earth. Plants and trees store carbon in their fibers, when they extract oxygen from carbon dioxide.
Hence we find carbon in coal, oil, and natural gas, all of which are byproducts of fossilized remains of ancient trees and plants. When we burn these fossilized carbon-rich products for their energy, we return the carbon to the atmosphere. This is the driving force behind global warming.
The green movement for sustainable energy seeks to break this aspect of the carbon-cycle, by ceasing burning fossilized carbon. This would end our dependence on coal power stations, and gasoline-fueled motor vehicles that are choking our atmosphere with carbon-dioxide gas.
Shifting to Organic Batteries For Our Sustainable Future
The green movement seeks to control global warming, by reducing our dependence on coal power stations, gas peaking stations, and gasoline vehicles. Wind and solar power can replace coal and gas, and electric vehicles can substitute for gasoline transport.
However, we do need batteries to store wind and power energy at night, when the sun sets, and the wind fades away. Lithium-ion batteries provide an essential role in storing grid energy, and powering electric vehicles.
But processing lithium – which is not earth-abundant – has a negative environmental footprint. Whereas switching across to organic materials with earth-abundant carbon-based molecules, is a promising alternative to the current way of doing things.
More Information
Nanoporous Carbon With Very Large Surface
