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					</table><p>Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (<a href="https://www.mit.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">MIT</a>), along with colleagues from the <a href="https://wyss.harvard.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering</a>, have discovered that cement, when combined with carbon black and water, forms a supercapacitor that can efficiently store electrical energy which can help create a low-cost energy storage system.</p>
<p>The innovative supercapacitor has the potential to support the integration of renewable energy sources like solar, wind, and tidal power by ensuring stable energy networks despite fluctuations in renewable energy supply.</p>
<p>The team of researchers said, with its versatile applications and environmentally friendly components, this energy-storing supercapacitor represents a leap forward in the quest for sustainable energy solutions.</p>
<p>Supercapacitors, an alternative to traditional batteries, work on a simple principle: two electrically conductive plates immersed in an electrolyte, separated by a membrane.</p>
<p>When voltage is applied, positive and negative charges accumulate on the plates, creating an electric field that stores electrical energy.</p>
<p>Supercapacitors have garnered attention for their rapid charging and discharging capabilities, but conventional materials limited their widespread adoption due to cost and availability constraints.</p>
<p><strong>How it Works</strong></p>
<p>The researchers introduced carbon black into a concrete mixture alongside cement powder and water to produce the novel supercapacitor.</p>
<p>As the mixture cured, the water naturally created a branching network of openings within the structure, and the carbon migrated into these spaces, forming wire-like structures within the hardened cement.</p>
<p>This intricate fractal-like network resulted in an extensive internal surface area within a compact volume, allowing for a powerful energy storage capability.</p>
<p>The next step involved soaking the material in a standard electrolyte material, such as potassium chloride, which facilitated the accumulation of charged particles on the carbon structures.</p>
<p>When a thin space or insulating layer separated two electrodes made from this conductive nanocomposite, a high-performance supercapacitor was formed.</p>
<p>The researchers said the unique combination of cement and carbon black provides several advantages over traditional energy storage technologies. They are cost-effective, integrate energy generated from renewable sources, and charge and discharge energy swiftly.</p>
<p>Potential applications for these energy-storing supercapacitors include incorporating them into the concrete foundations of buildings, allowing for the storage of a full day&#8217;s worth of energy while maintaining structural strength.</p>
<p>The team said that concrete roadways with integrated supercapacitors could offer contactless recharging for electric vehicles as they travel over these roads.</p>
<p>Recently, RMIT University <a href="https://www.mercomindia.com/researchers-build-proton-energy-storage-alternative" target="_blank" rel="noopener">secured</a> international patents for the development of the proton battery, which holds the potential to power homes, vehicles, and devices, offering an eco-friendly alternative to conventional lithium-ion batteries.</p>
<div class="saboxplugin-wrap" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person" itemscope itemprop="author"><div class="saboxplugin-tab"><div class="saboxplugin-gravatar"></div><div class="saboxplugin-authorname"><a href="https://cms.mercomindia.com/author/gautamee-hazarika/" class="vcard author" rel="author"><span class="fn">Gautamee Hazarika</span></a></div><div class="saboxplugin-desc"><div itemprop="description"><div class="designboxt">
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<p><strong style="text-decoration: underline">Gautamee,</strong> Staff reporter at Mercom India<br />
<a href="https://mercomindia.com/author/gautamee-hazarika/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">More articles from Gautamee.</a><br />
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<a href="gautamee@mercomindia.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">gautamee@mercomindia.com</a></p>
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<div class="authorboxn"><img class="alignleft" src="https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Picture1.jpg" width="102" height="102" /><a href="https://mercomindia.com/author/gautamee-hazarika/" rel="noopener">Gautamee</a> is a reporter at Mercom India. Prior to Mercom, Gautamee was working as a multimedia news journalist at ThePrint in New Delhi. She has received her Bachelors in English Honors and Masters in English Literature from St.Stephen&#8217;s College, University of Delhi.<a href="https://mercomindia.com/author/gautamee-hazarika/" rel="noopener">More articles from Gautamee</a></div>
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Cement-Carbon Black Supercapacitor Can Store Energy at Low Cost: MIT


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					</table><p>The Indian Institute of Science&#8217;s (<a href="https://iisc.ac.in/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">IISc</a>) Department of Instrumentation and Applied Physics (IAP) has created an ultramicro supercapacitor that can store a large amount of electric charge despite its small size.</p>
<p>Unlike batteries, capacitors are unable to discharge energy continuously, making them unsuitable for powering devices such as mobile phones.</p>
<p>However, supercapacitors offer the benefits of both batteries and capacitors as they have the capability to both store and release large amounts of energy, making them highly sought after for advanced electronic devices.</p>
<p>The researchers intend to investigate whether replacing MoS2 with other materials can further increase the capacitance of their supercapacitor.</p>
<p>They said their fully functional supercapacitor can be integrated into energy-storage devices through on-chip integration, such as electric car batteries or miniaturized systems.</p>
<p>They plan to apply for a patent for the supercapacitor.</p>
<p>This new supercapacitor is smaller and more condensed than previous models. It can be utilized in consumer electronic devices, electric vehicles, streetlights, and medical devices.</p>
<p>In the study, which has been published in <em>ACS Energy Letters</em>, the researchers said they utilized Field Effect Transistors (FETs) as charge collectors for their supercapacitor instead of the metallic electrodes that are commonly used in traditional capacitors.</p>
<p>According to Abha Misra, Professor at IAP and corresponding author of the study, &#8220;Using FET as an electrode for supercapacitors is something new for tuning charge in a capacitor.&#8221;</p>
<p>After manufacturing the supercapacitor, the researchers measured its electrochemical capacitance or charge-holding capacity by applying various voltages.</p>
<p>Their findings showed that the capacitance increased by 3000% under specific conditions, which was significantly higher than the 18% increase observed in a capacitor containing only MoS2 without graphene under the same conditions.</p>
<p>Currently, batteries are the primary power source for many devices. But batteries have a limited lifespan as they gradually lose their capacity to store charge over time. Capacitors, on the other hand, can store electric charge for much longer periods due to their design.</p>
<p>For instance, a capacitor operating at 5 volts will maintain the same voltage even after 10 years.</p>
<p>Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) have <a href="https://www.mercomindia.com/researchers-find-solar-pv-storage-systems" target="_blank" rel="noopener">developed</a> a solution that combines power from renewable sources with electricity from the public grid and uses batteries to compensate for fluctuations.</p>
<p>Earlier this month, researchers at the Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences, China, and Kyushu Institute of Technology, Japan, <a href="https://www.mercomindia.com/crab-shells-could-power-rechargeable-batteries" target="_blank" rel="noopener">claimed</a> to upcycle crab shells into porous, carbon-filled materials with various uses, including using the crab carbon to create anode materials for sodium-ion batteries.</p>
<div class="saboxplugin-wrap" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person" itemscope itemprop="author"><div class="saboxplugin-tab"><div class="saboxplugin-gravatar"></div><div class="saboxplugin-authorname"><a href="https://cms.mercomindia.com/author/gautamee-hazarika/" class="vcard author" rel="author"><span class="fn">Gautamee Hazarika</span></a></div><div class="saboxplugin-desc"><div itemprop="description"><div class="designboxt">
<p><img class="alignleft" style="border-radius: 50%;height: 50px;margin-top: -4px;border: 1px solid #00b451" src="https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Picture1.jpg" width="50" /></p>
<p><strong style="text-decoration: underline">Gautamee,</strong> Staff reporter at Mercom India<br />
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<a href="gautamee@mercomindia.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">gautamee@mercomindia.com</a></p>
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<div class="authorboxn"><img class="alignleft" src="https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Picture1.jpg" width="102" height="102" /><a href="https://mercomindia.com/author/gautamee-hazarika/" rel="noopener">Gautamee</a> is a reporter at Mercom India. Prior to Mercom, Gautamee was working as a multimedia news journalist at ThePrint in New Delhi. She has received her Bachelors in English Honors and Masters in English Literature from St.Stephen&#8217;s College, University of Delhi.<a href="https://mercomindia.com/author/gautamee-hazarika/" rel="noopener">More articles from Gautamee</a></div>
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IISc Researchers Develop Supercapacitor for Advanced Energy Storage Devices

<p>New research conducted by a group of scientists from <a href="https://wustl.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Washington University in St. Louis</a>, on common red bricks, has revealed the potential of this inexpensive building material to store energy.</p>
<p>Nature, the scientific journal published its research shedding light on ‘fired bricks,’ which are chemically processed to become supercapacitors that can hold enough energy to light an LED lamp.</p>
<p>Supercapacitors are electrical devices that are used to store a large amount of electrical charge.</p>
<p>Although the research is at its early stages, the bricks are found to have far-reaching potential. Since bricks are the building blocks of any construction, a large amount of space it occupies can be utilized for storing energy.</p>
<p>The research team developed a conducting polymer poly (3,4-ethylene-dioxythiophene), called- PEDOT- and coated the bricks with it. The nanofibers in the polymer seep into the porous brick where the coating is trapped. This coating stores and conducts electricity.</p>
<p>The research focuses on red bricks as it contains iron oxide (rust), which triggers the polymerization reaction. The red color of a brick originates from hematite, a pigment, and serves as a low-cost naturally abundant inorganic precursor for catalysts, magnets, and alloys.</p>
<p>The bricks can also be made waterproof by using a five-minute epoxy which enables the operation of the supercapacitors while submerged underwater and a gel electrolyte extend cycling stability to 10,000 cycles with ~90% capacitance retention.</p>
<p><a href="https://mercomindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/These-Red-Bricks-Could-Be-Turned-into-Energy-Storing-Devices-1-scaled.jpg"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-21004" src="https://mercomindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/These-Red-Bricks-Could-Be-Turned-into-Energy-Storing-Devices-1-scaled.jpg" alt="These Red Bricks Could Be Turned into Energy Storing Devices" width="2560" height="1501" srcset="https://cms.mercomindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/These-Red-Bricks-Could-Be-Turned-into-Energy-Storing-Devices-1-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cms.mercomindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/These-Red-Bricks-Could-Be-Turned-into-Energy-Storing-Devices-1-300x176.jpg 300w, https://cms.mercomindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/These-Red-Bricks-Could-Be-Turned-into-Energy-Storing-Devices-1-1024x600.jpg 1024w, https://cms.mercomindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/These-Red-Bricks-Could-Be-Turned-into-Energy-Storing-Devices-1-768x450.jpg 768w, https://cms.mercomindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/These-Red-Bricks-Could-Be-Turned-into-Energy-Storing-Devices-1-1536x901.jpg 1536w, https://cms.mercomindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/These-Red-Bricks-Could-Be-Turned-into-Energy-Storing-Devices-1-2048x1201.jpg 2048w, https://cms.mercomindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/These-Red-Bricks-Could-Be-Turned-into-Energy-Storing-Devices-1-650x381.jpg 650w, https://cms.mercomindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/These-Red-Bricks-Could-Be-Turned-into-Energy-Storing-Devices-1-624x366.jpg 624w, https://cms.mercomindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/These-Red-Bricks-Could-Be-Turned-into-Energy-Storing-Devices-1-600x352.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px" /></a></p>
<p>The research team claims that a brick wall supercapacitor can be charged several times within an hour. According to the team, when 50 bricks are connected with solar panels, it can provide emergency lighting for five hours.</p>
<p>Mercom had earlier <a href="https://mercomindia.com/carbon-nano-structure-diamond-energy-storage/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reported</a> the design of a new carbon nanostructure made from diamond nano threads that could be used for mechanical energy storage, wearable technologies, and biomedical applications.</p>
<p>Researchers at Drexel University have <a href="https://mercomindia.com/researchers-develop-class-materials-store-energy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">come up</a> with a new class of materials that could store electrical energy very quickly called MXene, which is two-dimensional titanium carbide.</p>
<p>Researchers at <a href="https://www.research.ibm.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">IBM Research</a> have also <a href="https://mercomindia.com/ibm-claims-come-up-battery-replace-lithium-ion/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">announced</a> a new battery that could help eliminate the use of heavy metals in battery production, and this could lead to a paradigm shift in the long-term sustainability of many elements in our energy ecosystem. Generally, heavy metals like nickel and cobalt are used in batteries, which pose a severe threat to our environment and are hazardous.</p>
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These Red Bricks Could Be Turned into Energy Storing Devices

<p>The Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (<a href="http://www.iiseradmission.in/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">IISER</a>) and SPEL Technologies Pune have jointly developed a technology for generating functionalized graphene at lower costs.</p>
<p>This process will be used for the development of graphene-based supercapacitors for energy storage, according to the Department of Science and Technology (DST). The supercapacitors will be fabricated at SPEL.</p>
<p>The DST is a department within the Ministry of Science and Technology in India, established to promote new areas of science and technology and is a nodal department for organizing, coordinating, and promoting scientific and technological activities in the country.</p>
<p>Supercapacitors are electrical devices that are used to store a large amount of electrical charge. They are known as double-layer capacitors or ultracapacitors. They store and release energy and need a layer of electrolyte.</p>
<p>Electrolytes are electrically conductive material that can be solid, liquid, or somewhere in between. Electrolytes are very crucial components in the performance of electrochemical supercapacitors.</p>
<p>This new way of reducing graphene oxide is claimed to lead to the formation of self-healed ambient stable, reduced graphene oxide (rGO).  The release also stated that the cost of raw materials for the production of one gram of rGO is estimated to be less than ₹700 (~$9.81). This is much lower than is currently commercially available.</p>
<p>The ‘High-Performance Graphene-Based Super Capacitor’ project is supported and funded by the Technology Mission Division (Energy and Water), DST, under the Material for Energy Storage Program.</p>
<p>The DST is supporting research on energy materials through a Materials for Energy Conservation and Storage Platform (MECSP). The MECSP will support research and development for the entire spectrum of energy conservation and storage technologies from early-stage research to technology breakthroughs in materials, systems, and scalable technologies to maximize resource use efficiency.</p>
<p>Four centers have been developed under DST – MECSP on supercapacitors, batteries, and hydrogen. These centers include more than 20 elite institutions and 80 research personnel working on materials and next-generation devices in batteries, supercapacitors, solid-state hydrogen storage, and fuel cells.</p>
<p>Earlier, Mercom <a href="https://mercomindia.com/electrolyte-boost-efficiency-supercapacitors-energy-storage/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reported</a> that researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and other institutions have come out with a new class of liquids that will enhance the efficiency and stability of supercapacitors. They have also developed a method to reduce the flammability of these devices.</p>
<p>Previously, the IISER in Bhopal <a href="https://mercomindia.com/scientific-research-institute-bhopal-eoi-solar-projects/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">launched</a> an expression of interest for establishing a solar power project based on RESCO (renewable energy service company) model. The project is slated to be installed on an approximately six-kilometer peripheral road at IISER.</p>
<div class="saboxplugin-wrap" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person" itemscope itemprop="author"><div class="saboxplugin-tab"><div class="saboxplugin-gravatar"></div><div class="saboxplugin-authorname"><a href="https://cms.mercomindia.com/author/nithin-thomas-prasad/" class="vcard author" rel="author"><span class="fn">Nithin Thomas</span></a></div><div class="saboxplugin-desc"><div itemprop="description"><div class="designboxt">
<p><img class="alignleft" style="border-radius: 50%;height: 50px;margin-top: -4px;border: 1px solid #00b451" src="https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Nithin-2-1.jpg" width="50" /></p>
<p><strong style="text-decoration: underline">Nithin Thomas,</strong> Staff reporter at Mercom India<br />
<a href="https://www.mercomindia.com/author/nithin-thomas-prasad/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">More articles from Nithin Thomas.</a></p>
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<div class="authorboxn"><img class="alignleft" src="https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Nithin-2-1.jpg" width="102" height="102" /><a href="https://www.mercomindia.com/author/nithin-thomas-prasad/" rel="noopener">Nithin Thomas</a> is a staff reporter at Mercom India. Previously with Reuters News, he has covered oil, metals and agricultural commodity markets across global markets. He has also covered refinery and pipeline explosions, oil and gas leaks, Atlantic region hurricane developments, and other natural disasters. Nithin holds a Masters Degree in Applied Economics from Christ University, Bangalore and a Bachelor&#8217;s Degree in Commerce from Loyola College, Chennai.<a href="https://www.mercomindia.com/author/nithin-thomas-prasad/" rel="noopener">More articles from Nithin Thomas Prasad</a></div>
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