Press Release

A peek under a hybrid’s hood reveals wood?

Engineers at UMD make all-wood supercapacitor

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  February 16, 2017

CONTACT:
Martha Heil
301 405 0876
mjheil@umd.edu

Sometimes it seems like it takes forever to charge your phone. That’s because a chemical reaction inside your battery needs time to happen. A supercapacitor doesn't use a chemical reaction, instead it just attracts energy to one of its ends. This means it charges and discharges quickly. Supercapacitors don't hold enough charge to alone power a phone, but are often used in regenerative brakes for hybrid cars, where a brief surge of energy is all that’s needed. An even more environmentally-friendly supercapacitor has been invented by engineers at the University of Maryland: It's all made of wood.

When alive, the tree grew channels to draw water from the ground. Now Liangbing Hu, of the department of materials science, and his team have used those channels to transmit the electrical charge, made even straighter by heating them and exposing them to carbon dioxide. The other end of the supercapacitor is also baked at a high temperature and then filled with electricity attracting material. In the middle, a piece of unbaked wood is filled with a gel that conducts ions. The wood sandwich works as well as traditional metal-oxide supercapacitors, and can stand up to ten thousand charge and discharge cycles without losing capacity.

“Our all-wood supercapacitor is cheap, safe, environmentally friendly and biocompatible,” said Chaoji Chen, first author of the article. “Also, the cycling life is longer and power density is higher than comparable batteries already used in similar applications.”

The work was published last month in the journal Energy & Environmental Science, and was funded by the Nanostructures for Electrical Energy Storage, a Department of Energy-funded Energy Frontier Research Center, headquartered at the University of Maryland.

 

 


More Information: 

All-wood, low tortuosity, aqueous, biodegradable supercapacitors with ultra-high capacitance


dx.doi.org/10.1039/C6EE03716J


Energy Environ. Sci., 2017

About the A. James Clark School of Engineering

The University of Maryland’s A. James Clark School of Engineering is a premier program, ranked among the top 20 in the world. Located just a few miles from Washington, D.C., the Clark School is at the center of a constellation of high-tech companies and federal laboratories, offering students and faculty access to unique professional opportunities.

Our broad spectrum of academic programs, including the world’s only accredited undergraduate fire protection engineering program, is complemented by a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem, early hands-on educational experiences, and participation in national and international competitions.

The Clark School is leading research advancements in aerospace, bioengineering, robotics, nanotechnology, disaster resilience, energy and sustainability, and cybersecurity. From the universal product code to satellite radio, SMS text messaging to the implantable insulin pump, our students, faculty, and alumni are engineering life-changing innovations for millions. Learn more at www.eng.umd.edu.