Soon batteries to run on sugar
In a breakthrough to develop long-lasting batteries for smartphones and other gadgets, scientists have successfully created a sugar biobattery that completely converts the chemical energy in sugar substrates into electricity.
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NEW YORK: In a breakthrough to develop long-lasting batteries for smartphones and other gadgets, scientists have successfully created a sugar biobattery that completely converts the chemical energy in sugar substrates into electricity.
This biobattery can achieve an energy-storage density of about 596 ampere-hours (A/h) per kg - an order of magnitude higher than the 42 A-h/kg energy density of a typical lithium-ion battery used in various gadgets.
"A sugar biobattery with such a high-energy density could last at least 10 times longer than existing lithium-ion batteries of the same weight," said Y H Percival Zhang, an associate professor of biological systems engineering at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, popularly known as Virginia Tech.
The biobattery is a type of enzymatic fuel cell (EFC) - an electrobiochemical device that converts chemical energy from fuels such as starch and glycogen into electricity.
"We are first to demonstrate the complete oxidation of the biobattery's sugar so we achieve a near-theoretical energy conversion yield that no one else has reported," Zhang said.
The sugar biobattery is also less costly than the lithium-ion battery and environmentally friendly,
This biobattery can achieve an energy-storage density of about 596 ampere-hours (A/h) per kg - an order of magnitude higher than the 42 A-h/kg energy density of a typical lithium-ion battery used in various gadgets.
"A sugar biobattery with such a high-energy density could last at least 10 times longer than existing lithium-ion batteries of the same weight," said Y H Percival Zhang, an associate professor of biological systems engineering at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, popularly known as Virginia Tech.
The biobattery is a type of enzymatic fuel cell (EFC) - an electrobiochemical device that converts chemical energy from fuels such as starch and glycogen into electricity.
"We are first to demonstrate the complete oxidation of the biobattery's sugar so we achieve a near-theoretical energy conversion yield that no one else has reported," Zhang said.
The sugar biobattery is also less costly than the lithium-ion battery and environmentally friendly,
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