The smelliest fruit, durian, can provide a better alternative for energy storage to fast-charge electronic devices.
Two of the world's smelliest fruits, durian and jackfruit, could be key ingredients when it comes to creating better energy storage for lightning-fast electric charging. Researchers from the University of Sydney have successfully built electrodes for supercapacitors out of durian and jackfruit waste that can smoothly send out energy. This will allow anyone to power their phones, laptops, tablets, electric vehicles, and other electronic devices using this approach. Durian and jackfruit were specifically selected for the team's research because of their large surface area and porosity. The team published their findings in the Journal of Energy Storage.
"Durian waste, as a zero-cost substance that the community wants to get rid of urgently due to its repulsive, nauseous smell, is a sustainable source that can transform the waste into a product to substantially reduce the cost of energy storage through our chemical-free, green synthesis protocol," said co-author Vincent Gomes of the University of Sydney in Australia.
Scientists usually depend on a wide range of carbon-based materials as electrodes when creating supercapacitors, such as activated carbon, carbon nanotubes, and graphene sheets. Using materials that contain high porosity is more suitable since they can help diffuse electrolytes throughout the electrodes, and they maximize surface area. However, these materials are more expensive, which fuelled the idea of using organic waste as materials when creating electrodes out of aerogels, such as paper pulp, pomelo peel, and watermelon. The leftover was freeze-dried to help get rid of water while keeping the structure that makes a decent aerogel intact.
The process of turning durian fruit samples into carbon aerogels. (Image Credit: University of Sydney)
Turns out, durian's spongy core is ideal for creating biomass-based aerogels. So the team selected both durian and jackfruit from a locally sourced area. After gathering the two fruits, they took core samples from each piece of fruit and rinsed them with deionized water to clean off dirt and debris.
The team converted the fruits' biomass into supercapacitors that can store electricity. This was achieved by transforming the biomass into stable carbon aerogels by placing the fruit samples in Teflon autoclaves, which were heated for 10 hours at 180° C (356° F), and then cooled overnight. Afterward, the samples were rinsed and freeze-dried. Carbonizing the free-dried samples involved heating them in a furnace for an hour at 800° C (1,472° F), which yielded black, highly porous, ultra-light aerogels. The carbon aerogels were then used to create electrodes for energy storage.
The team found that both durian and jackfruit waste created aerogels with excellent energy storage properties. There was a noticeable performance boost in the durian-based aerogels compared to the jackfruit ones. This is mainly because the durain-based aerogels contain greater porosity and surface-area. However, the upside is that they're both an inexpensive alternative to the activated carbon supercapacitors that are currently used in energy storage.
"We have reached a point where we must urgently discover and produce ways to create and store energy using sustainably-sourced materials that do not contribute to global warming," said Gomes. "Confronted with this and the world's rapidly depleting supplies of fossil fuels, naturally-derived supercapacitors are leading the way for developing high-efficiency energy storage devices."
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