By: Steve Bush December 9, 2021
The Digital Cellulose Center in Sweden is storing electrical energy on "electronic paper" made entirely of organic materials.
The ingredients are cellulose, conductive polymers, and bio-based charcoal from coconut. The result is durable, conductive, and has a large surface area structure that can be combined with energy storage materials.
Jesper Edberg of RISE, a cooperative research institute, said: "Our goal is to use paper materials to make supercapacitor prototypes by the end of this year." "We also plan to add electrochemically active materials to enable this paper to be used in battery applications. Then energy The density will increase significantly because batteries can store more energy than supercapacitors. Our previous research also showed that such batteries can be made from forest materials."
In a proof of concept with industrial partners Agfa and Ahlstrom-Munksjö, the center set out to prove that electrode paper can be manufactured on a large scale using traditional technology.
"It is produced regularly
The paper machine produced several paper rolls, each of ten meters," according to the center. "Tests have shown that the paper has the same efficient energy storage capacity as traditional supercapacitors. "
To make traditional paper, thin and long fibers are dispersed in water to form a uniform layer, and then the water is removed. Cellulose binds the material together and turns it into paper.
For electronic paper, the fibers must first be coated with electroactive ingredients (conductive polymer and coconut charcoal), and these active ingredients must remain attached when the fibers form a network. The right amount of active ingredients must be added, because too much will cause the paper to fall apart.
In a continuous process, a wet mixture of all ingredients is distributed on a fine wire mesh, and water is sucked out by vacuum (left). Squeeze this layer to remove more water while strengthening the network, and then use heat to evaporate the remaining water before rolling the paper (above).
In addition to RISE, the Digital Cellulose Center also cooperates with the Swedish KTH Research Institute and Linköping University to carry out the project. Agfa supplies conductive polymers, and Ahlstrom-Munksjö manages a pilot plant in France.
Tagged as: Battery Electrodes Homepage Featured Articles Organic Renewable Energy Supercapacitors
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