TOKYO UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE, TOKYO, JAPAN. The development of sugar batteries is a good replacement for lithium ion batteries that are expensive. There is a limited supply of lithium ion batteries that make them very expensive. Also, the obtaining them harms the environment.
Smart phones utilize lithium ion batteries. Lithium is a finite resource that makes it expensive. Japanese scientists looked for a solution that will replace them. They found their solution via sugar which harms the body when not taken in moderation. Carbon which is a main component in sugar are harnessed to be utilized as an alternative power source of batteries.
What they did was to heat sugar in extremely high temperatures. In this way, sugar can be converted to hard carbon which is then utilized to create sodium ion batteries. Sodium has an unlimited supply. In addition to that, sodium ion batteries can be produced using aluminum, sodium and iron rather than copper or cobalt.
The results derived from their tests show that the battery capacity can be increased by using carbon that are made from sugar as anode. In fact, the Komaba Group in Tokyo was able to achieve an increase of 20% in the storage capacity with the use of sugar versus the traditional use of lithium batteries.
| Invention | Sugar Batteries |
|---|---|
| Organization | Tokyo University of Science, Tokyo, Japan |
| Researcher | Professor Shinichi Komaba & Team |
| Field(s) | Sodium Ion Batteries, Lithium Ion Batteries, Renewable Energy, Green Technology, Clean Technology, Smart phones |
| Further Information | Inhabitat |
