A safer, environmentally friendly alternative to conventional lithium-ion batteries has just been developed, promising sustainability and enhanced efficiency.

In findings featured in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from Texas A&M University have demonstrated how natural polymers have been instrumental in developing a biodegradable battery.

The research team includes Distinguished Professor of Chemistry Dr. Karen Wooley and Professor of Chemical Engineering Dr. Jodie Lutkenhaus. Wooley’s 15-year-long research on creating sustainable, degradable plastic materials, combined with Lutkenhaus’s expertise in designing improved batteries using organic materials, has been critical to the study.

Lutkenhaus said:

“We’ve long been interested in safer, more flexible battery materials. When Dr. Wooley’s lab began developing these naturally sourced polymers, it opened the door to something entirely new — a battery that could perform well and also disappear safely when it’s no longer needed.”

The battery is made from a new material derived from naturally occurring ingredients: L-glutamic acid, an amino acid essential for protein synthesis, and riboflavin, commonly known as vitamin B2.

According to Wooley, these two components were first identified by Dr. Shih-Guo Li. His dissertation research explored “the content of bio-renewable building blocks for organic polymer battery construction.” He went on to develop methods for joining these molecular units into chain-like formations called polypeptides.

Based on lab tests, the material can function as an anode and store electrons. It is also proven non-toxic to fibroblast cells found in connective tissue, making it suitable for use in implantable or wearable devices, suggested Wooley.

While the development of a biodegradable battery is a major innovation, the chemical process involved is currently expensive and not yet conducive to commercial use. Nevertheless, the team is dedicated to finding new methods to make the material more accessible and affordable in the future.

Wooley added:

“I like to consider every synthetic material that my laboratory produces as being a point along its journey toward function and purpose, with an ability to perform physical and chemical transformations that allow reuse of the molecular components in several other directions. Most extreme in this case, the batteries could become edible to provide a different kind of ‘energy’ supply.”

Read the full article here to learn more about biodegradable batteries.

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