Oct 17, 2020
Ready to explore energy sources
and supercapacitor applications you can build with? The time is now
for
energy storage advances and this podcast explores an exciting
structural possibility.
To learn more about this advancement in energy, listen and
hear
Julio D'Arcy is an assistant
professor of chemistry at Washington University in St. Louis. He
brings listeners along in the search for supercapacitors as
energy storage system. He discovered that rust—which is iron
corrosion—is a fascinating material, abundant in both nature and in
synthetic conditions like construction.
He started working with rust in his lab, demonstrating how they
could change its properties at a chemical level and make it serve
as an oxidant of chemical energy, which is a means to store energy.
Under careful syntheses, they turned bricks blue and changed their
structure and coated them with special nanofibers. These nanofibers
move like a sponge throughout all the pores, covering every
surface, yet allowing the fusion of gases and ions through the
still-open pores.
He explains how these nanofibers
are semiconductors made from PEDOT, which is a conducting polymer.
This plastic can conduct electricity, store energy, and grow from
the hematite in the bricks. The vision for these bricks is to
eventually produce supercapacitors to replace batteries and be used
as a dependable load-bearing energy source. The trick, he says, is
to make sure the structure and chemical properties don't change
over time and this has nanofiber alignment implications.
He tells listeners about their work with magnetic nanofibers toward
that end. He also talks about the limits from the much lower energy
density these bricks have than batteries and how they are working
on that limitation. This progresses into an exciting conversation
about possible solutions and ways this technology can only
improve.
He adds that while they are about five years from load-bearing
commercial applications, current uses include smaller-scale
applications like power emergency lighting in the house or powering
small electronics embedded in the house. This polymer has exciting
potential for other applications like its ability to sense changes
in PH, humidity, and temperature: the sensor capability for at-home
use is boundless.
For more, see his lab's website: sites.wustl.edu/darcylab/.
Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK