Researchers Develop Smartphone Batteries from Packing Peanuts

Purdue University researchers have turned packing peanuts into battery components that promise significantly better performance than existing options for handheld devices.

Packing peanuts are commonly used during shipping to protect from impact. They cannot be recycled and remain intact after disposal. Purdue researchers turned them into anodes, one of the two electrodes in a battery, for Lithium-ion batteries. Li-on batteries are commonly used in handheld devices.

"Although packing peanuts are used worldwide as a perfect solution for shipping, they are notoriously difficult to break down, and only about 10 percent are recycled. Due to their low density, huge containers are required for transportation and shipment to a recycler, which is expensive and does not provide much profit on investment," said Vilas Pol in a news release.

Existing graphite anodes are 10 times thicker and more resistant than new anodes by UTEP researchers. The new anodes are better conductors of electricity and promise much faster charge-recharge cycles.

"Long-term electrochemical performance of these carbon electrodes is very stable. We cycled it 300 times without significant capacity loss. These carbonaceous electrodes are also promising for rechargeable sodium-ion batteries. Future work will include steps to potentially improve performance by further activation to increase the surface area and pore size to improve the electrochemical performance," said researcher Vinodkumar Etacheri.